issue 39 February 12, 2021 Making new things by learning from the old In a recent blog post, author Susan Orlean talked about learning to write by studying and adapting writers she admired: "I was bowled over by Tom Wolfe when I first started writing, and I’m sure some of my early pieces exuded more than a whiff of his tone and tenor. But there was only one Tom Wolfe, and I really don’t sound like him at all, and over time I started sounding less like a cut-rate Tom Wolfe and more like me. I still loved having his books on my desk while I was working, and whenever I got stuck on a piece I would paw through them, looking for ways he solved whatever writing problem I was having. It helped me enormously."
Inneresting 39
Inneresting 39
Inneresting 39
issue 39 February 12, 2021 Making new things by learning from the old In a recent blog post, author Susan Orlean talked about learning to write by studying and adapting writers she admired: "I was bowled over by Tom Wolfe when I first started writing, and I’m sure some of my early pieces exuded more than a whiff of his tone and tenor. But there was only one Tom Wolfe, and I really don’t sound like him at all, and over time I started sounding less like a cut-rate Tom Wolfe and more like me. I still loved having his books on my desk while I was working, and whenever I got stuck on a piece I would paw through them, looking for ways he solved whatever writing problem I was having. It helped me enormously."