Martin Amis: How to write a great sentence [CC]

He looks like 'Agent Smith' in the Matrix movies.

Sorry, but I don't think Martin has ever written a great sentence.

I have to disagree with his notion that a sentence cannot contain two words with the same prefix or suffix. He violates that rule all the time because it's necessary to do so. In fact, it can be used to great effect. On the other hand, it does give the writer something to think about. But it should not be mechanically or slavishly followed.

Agree about suffixes but not prefixes. Two prefixes per sentence sounds fine to me: conform, confound etc - depending of course on whether what you write is intelligent and interesting. No point writing a perfect sentence if it's a banal thought.

poetry as prose....consistently malevolent...hilariously funny....endlessly educational

You can write a bestseller, but you'll have to spend a lot of time around a lot of wankers...

He is a pompous snot and not as good as his father. I always wanted to force myself to go out and have fun after any wading through any of his books.

He is sexy

There must come to a point when a working-class bloke writes novel to blow these middle-class privileged tossers out of the water.

I am currently re-reading his brilliant masterpiece, 'London Fields', which is hilarious and ghastly in equal measure. It is one of the few books that has made me laugh out loud on a train.

He is an elegant stylist of the language. He makes good points of advice.

Has he read any Henry James???

"The future is getting smaller and the past is getting bigger."

I love Martin, largely due to his friendship with Hitch, but I find these heavily descriptive, classic-style novels with descriptions of a postural setting to be a horrible Bore! It may be blasphemous, but it seems to me to be a page filler. A way to maximize the number of words, due to a lack of life experience. All this flowery language, good or bad, has no Durham, no power, & leave me lost.

Perhaps, this is why I co some new papers. Journalists have limited space to get the point across. They can set the stage, but not describe every chair. I admire that quality. With journalists it’s about something relevant too. Which keeps my simple brain in tune

I love his arrogance lol

Pleasure by stealth

Interesting. I can't stand to read my own writing after it's 'done'. Which makes editing a real pain.

Read the war against cliche....then read it again.

Emptiness is form.

Think Mr Amis's rules are pretty schoolmistressy, methinks. Fear of repeating a prefix or suffix, etc., is what makes a lot prose less fluent. A good example is the British writer Douglas Murray, whose thinking is clear but whose prose is pretty opaque, as it hardly flows at all. In Mr Amis's case, suppose he fears his prose's 'smelling of the lamp', being poetic, something he discusses in another interview, about his father's opinion of his son's writing. EHemingway and CMcCarthy are not afraid of repetition, and it makes their prose far more readable, indeed superior.

Can someone please "translate" what he just said? 😵‍💫

To me, a well written book begs to be read aloud. My biggest problem, when writing, is how to know when a sentence should end!

In art, learn the rules, understand the rules, and then break them.

“A certain euphony”, indeed.

Something is amis...s

Absurd advices! Any sentence or paragraph by Nabokov, Amis' alleged paragon, is a failure in their light. To any aspiring writer watching this video, here's a real advice: in every choice between doing like Nabokov and following an advice that invalidates Nabokov, always go with doing like Nabokov. It's a simple matter of rationality. Weirdly enough, Amis seems forgetful of his own sentences: "The Captain put them down in Lovetown, and the tube of canned sex emptied itself in relays of tits and pits and zits." A good sentence from "Yellow Dog", but like his example of invitation/execution, a case of rhyme in prose. So here's another advice to aspiring writers: never waste your time following advices if the person offering them excludes himself from abiding by them.

RIP Mr Amis - London Fields was such a classic. Thank you 😇

Distraction, hair by questioner

Martin Amis: How to be a boringly twattish author.

One of Amis’ characters goes to an Indian restaurant and challenges the cooks to prepare a meal so hot he couldn’t eat it. When the plate arrives, he can see the curious cooks watching him through the little round kitchen window.

“A bit mild,” he said, when he could finally speak again.

I still remember phrases like this twenty years later. RIP Sir Martin.

He never said how to write a sentence and he's very smug.

Just right. Exactly how I approach my own work. You don't need to write it down. It's instinctive.

My English teacher recommended to me his book "Time's arrow". Back then, I was able to tell if a sentence written in Spanish was elegant. But reading Time's arrow I felt incredibly good when I found that same elegance. Here's an example that I haven't forgotten after 7 years: "the stars are the routemap of a nightmare. Don't join the points"❤

Writing a great sentence begins with having something intelligent, as in fact-based and rational to say. Style is always a prerogative of the ego.

His rule about not repeating things is absurrrrrrd. Glad none of the great writers followed this rule.

It doesn’t work that way for songwriters because not only do we have to write but we have to write within the ‘vox’ of the music, and it has to sound good when you sing it.

He drank himself to death,look at him shaking with drink tremors or the DT`s as it`s known

She’s got some filthy animals living on her head.

How’s that Amis?

Write in short grunts and snorts and make sure it's illustrated with porn

He almost quoted Flober, his idea of a good sentence is not his at all.

My advice? Use verbs, verbs are fun!

Nice, but not sure I could listen to this guy for more than five minutes at a time.

Too much booze & smokes.

Flaubert

Is he joking? Hed sit down with a bottle of wine and read his own book for 8 hours?

Living in the states I forgot he existed until he died. No one reads anything here. Not even road signs.
Best book- "The Information" by a mile.

A complete fraud who became famous because his father was a famous writer. Amis is a sniveling little wretch and a lightweight writer.