Writing Advice from Willa Cather

I did not read Willa Cather until prison. I knew of her so I read the novels in the prison's library. If ever my PO approves my new laptop, I will post my notes on my reading here. What I can say here is that I am not sure where Cather stands as an American novelist but I will pay attention to her.

So when Narrative published Cather's On the Art of Fiction, I read it. Liked it, too. Especially, the concluding paragraph:

Any first-rate novel or story must have in it the strength of a dozen fairly good stories that have been sacrificed to it. A good workman can’t be a cheap workman; he can’t be stingy about wasting material, and he cannot compromise. Writing ought either to be the manufacture of stories for which there is a market demand—a business as safe and commendable as making soap or breakfast foods—or it should be an art, which is always a search for something for which there is no market demand, something new and untried, where the values are intrinsic and have nothing to do with standardized values. The courage to go on without compromise does not come to a writer all at once—nor, for that matter, does the ability. Both are phases of natural development. In the beginning the artist, like his public, is wedded to old forms, old ideals, and his vision is blurred by the memory of old delights he would like to recapture.

sch

2/15/22