The Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control--and Live to Tell the Tale

by Alice Mattison

Overview

A targeted and insightful guide to the stages of writing fiction and memoir without falling into common traps, while wisely navigating the writing life, from an award-winning author and longtime teacher

“A book-length master class.” —The Atlantic

Writing well does not result from following rules and instructions, but from a blend of spontaneity, judgment, and a wise attitude toward the work—neither despairing nor defensive, but clear-eyed, courageous, and discerning. Writers must learn to tolerate the early stages, the dreamlike and irrational states of mind, and then to move from jottings and ideas to a messy first draft, and onward  into the work of revision. Understanding these stages is key.

The Kite and the String urges writers to let playfulness and spontaneity breathe life into the work—letting the kite move with the winds of feeling—while still holding on to the string that will keep it from flying away. Alice Mattison attends also to the difficulties of protecting writing time, preserving solitude, finding trusted readers, and setting the right goals for publication. The only writing guide that takes up both the stages of creative work and developing effective attitudes while progressing through them, plus strategies for learning more about the craft, The Kite and the String responds to a pressing need for writing guidance at all levels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143111634
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/04/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	982,354
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Alice Mattison is a widely acclaimed author and longtime writing teacher. She has published six novels—including The Book Borrower, Nothing Is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn, and When We Argued All Night, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice—as well as four collections of short stories and a collection of poems. Twelve of her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, and other work has been published in The New York Times, Ploughshares, and Ecotone and anthologized in The Pushcart Prize, PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and Best American Short Stories. A frequent panelist at AWP and other writing conferences, she has held residencies at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. She has taught at Brooklyn College, Yale University, and, for the last twenty-one years, in the Bennington Writing Seminars, the MFA program at Bennington College.

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Chapter 1
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Copyright © 2017 Alice Mattison.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
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Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Excuse Me, Don't We Know Each Other? xiii

Part I The Kite and the String

Chapter 1 Writing with Freedom and Common Sense 3

The Sound of Storytelling 3

Controlled Daydreaming 9

Part II People Taking Action

Chapter 2 Imagine 21

Chapter 3 What to Do with a Good Idea 33

Thoughts Jotted Down 33

What Almost Happened, What Could Have Happened 36

Facts Denied 41

Story as a Figure of Speech 43

From Theme to Story 45

Chapter 4 Let Happenings Happen 52

Make Trouble 52

Don't Be Melodramatic-but Be Dramatic 57

Don't (Necessarily) Be Afraid of Coincidence 61

Chapter 5 Become Someone Else 72

Am I Allowed to Pretend I'm You? 72

"Well, What Will She Do?" 79

Part III Stories and Books: Start to Finish

Chapter 6 Recognize Stories, Envision Books 89

What's a Story? Grace Paley's "A Conversation with My Father" 89

Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing" 93

Edward P. Jones's "The Sunday Following Mother's Day" 97

A Novel That Never Was Written 99

Imagining a Novel 105

The Quarry for Middlemarch 107

Chapter 7 What Killed the Queen? and Other Uncertainties That Keep a Reader Reading 119

It's Long Enough to Be a Novel, but Is It a Novel? 119

The Death of the Queen 122

The Wide, Straight Road 127

The Scenic Route 130

An Elevated Highway 133

Switchbacks 136

Scavenger Hunts with the Children 139

Part IV Choosing to Speak

Chapter 8 Silence and Storytelling 149

Stories Not Told 149

Direct and Indirect Narration 155

The Informative Sentence 158

Mysteries 159

Characters Who Think on the Page 161

Chronological Confusion 162

Murky Motivation 163

Unhelpful Departures from Realism 164

The Elliptical Style 165

Silence for Safety 166

The Silenced Character 170

Telling the Story 173

Part V Living to Tell the Tale

Chapter 9 Revising Our Thought Bubbles 177

The Fantasy 177

What Shall We Do? 181

Figure On t What You Actually Want 186

What Shall We Not Do? 188

Is Your Work Good Enough to Publish? 190

Revising Without Despair 191

Finding Readers 195

Learn to Write by Reading 201

Where Should You Try to Publish? 203

How Should You Submit Work? 205

What If It Doesn't Work? 207

Self-Publishing 208

The Part-Time Writer 210

Being Happy 213

The Writing Itself 217

Acknowledgments 221

Appendix: Books Mentioned 223

Index 227

Editorial Reviews

A book-length master class.”
—The Atlantic

“The Kite and the String does not purport to be either a DIY manual or memoiristic musing. Rather, it is a guide to the stages of writing, exploring an approach which is essentially practical, human, and hopeful. . . . Mattison’s close reading of various works of fiction is well worth every writer’s while. . . . She is a wonderfully wise and nurturing teacher.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Not a how-to so much as a reflection on how to be happy, or at least productive, as a writer . . . Mattison walks us through the writing process from idea to drafting to revision, offers possible forms for stories, carefully considers issues she’s noticed while teaching, then wraps up with proposals for how we might get our minds and expectations right. . . . A much-needed reminder to relax control, to commit the space and the time, then sit back and let the string unspool.”
—The Rumpus

“Full of warm but pragmatic wisdom . . . Mattison cuts through a lot of the mystique around the writing process.”
—Flavorwire

“Alice Mattison’s The Kite and the String is the best kind of ‘inside job.’ Though brimming with a practitioner’s reflective wisdom and immediately useful insight, it is never prescriptive—always acknowledging that ‘This worked for me. . .’ without ever presuming. But Mattison is so canny and experienced that her insights are hugely relevant for all of us who write. Indeed, this book goes right next to James Wood’s How Fiction Works on the shelf by the desk.”
—Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies and The Art of Time in Memoir

“An indispensable writing guide by a master teacher, as tough-minded as it is encouraging. And Alice Mattison’s wit, erudition, and transcendent common sense make it a sheer pleasure to read and re-read.”
—David Gates, author of Jernigan and A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me

“The essays in The Kite and the String are brilliant, funny, and wise—everything that readers of Alice Mattison’s fine work have come to expect—and they will send you running to your desk with new insight and inspiration. Every page is a keeper.”
—Jill McCorkle, author of Life After Life and Going Away Shoes

“Wry and wise, the voice of master teacher and storyteller Alice Mattison carries us aloft in this useful, funny, and important book about writing and the writing life. Every student, writer, and teacher—of fiction, nonfiction, and, for that matter, poetry—will find new insights, old truths newly expressed, and aid and comfort as we pursue our difficult and glorious art. In this book, Mattison reveals what her colleagues and students have long known—that she is an indispensable writing friend.”
—April Bernard, author of Miss Fuller 

“In this superb book about writing and her own surprising beginnings as a writer, Alice Mattison shows us how to create the vivid dream of successful fiction. If you want to be a writer, read this book.”
—Susan Cheever, author of Drinking in America

“Mattison analyzes how to write compelling fiction in this essential guide . . . a gold mine for writers across a spectrum of experience levels. Her conspiratorial ‘we the writers’ tone is charming and lively, and her breadth of knowledge makes her an effective and instructive authority. Perfect for aspiring writers or those trying to make it over a bump in the road.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“Unlike other guides on the topic, Mattison’s focuses on the process of becoming an author rather than the elements of a genre—finding story, not detailing its pieces. Anecdotes and examples from her career as a writer, mother, and MFA instructor make this a lively and provocative read. . . . The instruction is engaging and approachable, lending the feel of a writer’s workshop. A great choice for writers, particularly those with a day job.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“Mattison offers thoughtful, encouraging advice. . . . She doles out guidance on crafting story, conjuring character, and keeping readers engaged, all peppered with examples taken from her own classroom as well as from the works of literary giants. . . . Novice writers can do themselves (and us all) a favor by dipping into this practical primer.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A generous, empathetic writer’s companion.”
—Kirkus Reviews
 

From the Publisher

05/16/2016
Mattison (When We Argued All Night), a writing professor and novelist, offers thoughtful, encouraging advice to beginners. The central metaphor of her title is that writing well requires both free-flowing, spontaneous thought (the kite) and common sense (the string). Moving from this sensible contention, she doles out guidance on crafting story, conjuring character, and keeping readers engaged, all peppered with examples taken from her own classroom as well as from the works of literary giants such as Mark Twain, George Eliot, and Tillie Olsen. Mattison pays particular attention to the difficulties women authors still face. She also opens space for discussing other types of diversity in writing, and there is plenty here that will be of enormous worth to budding novelists and memoirists of all genders, races, sexual orientations, and ages. Novice writers can do themselves (and us all) a favor by dipping into this practical primer. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, the Zoë Pagnamenta Agency. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 05/01/2016
Speaking to memoirists and novelists, Mattison (writing, Bennington Coll.; The Book Borrower) proposes a call to action: that we write, selfishly devoting the time necessary to get the words out of our heads and onto the page. Whether penning a work intended for publication or one that serves as an exercise in voice and narrative, writers are encouraged to think freely and reel in creative impulses with control, like a kite on a string. Mattison addresses the notion of writing as a selfish pursuit and inspires those seriously pursing publication to embrace that selfishness. Unlike other guides on the topic, Mattison's focuses on the process of becoming an author rather than the elements of a genre—finding story, not detailing its pieces. Anecdotes and examples from Mattison's career as a writer, mother, and MFA instructor make this a lively and provocative read. VERDICT A certain awareness of craft is assumed of the reader in this guide, but the instruction is engaging and approachable, lending the feel of a writer's workshop. A great choice for writers, particularly those with a day job.—Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib.

Library Journal

2016-05-02
Encouragement to imagine, write, and revise.Drawing on decades of teaching, as well as her own writing experiences, Mattison (Bennington Writing Seminars; When We Argued All Night, 2012, etc.) offers a warmhearted guide addressed to those who "not only have the impulse to write stories, but have acted on it repeatedly." Instead of rules and techniques, she offers personal anecdotes, examples of problems her students have faced, and close readings of a wide range of fiction, all meant to inspire her readers' imaginations and bolster their efforts. Mattison cautions against self-censorship, often caused by fear of failure, fear of imagining new realities, or assorted other inhibitions: "Writing well involves surprising ourselves, giving what we don't yet know we care about a chance to emerge." The central task in writing fiction is "inventing people and actions from nothing, or inventing slight deviations from factual truth." These inventions come from "what's most intense in us," and Mattison counsels writers to fully inhabit their characters to discover their unique personalities. "To whom should this have happened?" she writes, "is a promising question for turning life into fiction." Writers need also to attend to events, drama, and strong feelings to enliven their plots. Although finished stories have an inevitability that undermines their usefulness as guides, Mattison offers myriad examples from writers including William Maxwell, Doris Lessing, Flannery O'Connor, Grace Paley, Rebecca West, Alice Munro, and many others. Tillie Olsen appears not only as an accomplished writer, but as a woman who put aside her fiction to attend to other tasks in her life; George Eliot serves both for her achievements in Middlemarch and as a keeper of a writing journal; and Mark Twain demonstrates the process of revision, as Mattison analyzes three versions of his last book. Rewriting, the author insists, is a crucial task. A generous, empathetic writer's companion.

Kirkus Reviews