Ernest Gaines On Writing

In the same alumni magazine article on Ernest Gaines that I discussed in the last post, Mr. Gaines discussed how he learned to write.

He was born in 1933 to former slaves in a small rural Louisiana town. He was educated in a one-room schoolhouse that met only 5 months out of the year--because the children needed to be free to plant and harvest as needed.

When he was fifteen years old, he entered a library for the first time. He was immediately drawn to the masters.

He said," I learned to write by reading Homer and Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Turgenev, Faulkner and Joyce--and many others."

His advice to aspiring writers: "Read, read, read. And write, write, write."

I tend to suffer from reverse chronological snobbery (to put a spin on CS Lewis' quote). I rarely read books by authors still living. If a book has not stood the test of time, I'm just not sure that it's worth my time.

And yet, I am aware that all writing was contemporary at one time. Every story was at one time a modern story. So, I particularly appreciate this comment from Mr. Gaines.

"There will never be a better love story than Romeo and Juliet, no better war story than War and Peace and no better adventure than The Odyssey. But there are still love stories going on. And mysteries. And adventures.

"So, we have to keep writing. We have to write about our time because no one else can do that for us.

"We write to say, 'We were here.'"