Ian McEwan's Advice for Aspiring Writers

The epitome of the middle class navel gazer . A complete
petit bourgeois brain who has Zero experience of Real life .

This was such a great episode

Step 1) Pan the audio to the hard right channel

Looking for a ghost writer? Here I am. Low prices.

Jesus, pompous twattery.

Enjoyed this insight. I love to read and write.

I disagree with almost everything he said

I agree with you, but still, undergraduates should be encouraged to write. if good writing comes along with experience, ( experiencing bein a writer,) then the more they write and the earlier they start is better,. they will build certain skills that would be useful, later on, if after some years of life- experience they decide they want to deepen their involvement in writing fiction or non-fiction. I am saying this a woman who loves reading and someone who has just started on the road to writing. and English isn't even my native language, so I regret not having adequate courses in writing . but again, may be it's a good thing that I didn't something I would have to unlearn to be the type of writer that I truly want to be! I am still deep in doubt about my ability to achieve this objective though. for now I just know that sometimes I've got ideas that demand to be made into words and be laid in paper or a digital word processor. I am trusting the process. and I find a excellent example in the writer: Ian McEwan, because, finally someone admits that writers don't always find writing and creating new worlds and original plots easy all the time. this actually, encourages me to go down this road if I had more realistic expectations. so thank you Mr McEwan and those who. posted this video. thanks😊

To be honest, I find this rather vague and uninspiring advice from Ian on this occasion. It seems to be a rather snobbish, traditional mindset. I've read too many published books which have very tidy prose but weak ideas - where the author has perhaps studied a bit too much in their life and has neglected the raw creativity needed to truly excite a reader.

I've read some self-published books that had some ropey prose but were immeasurably better books than some of the published ones I've read from established authors.

Basically: Don't read too much into advice from established authors. Carve your own path.

A chapter in a writer's handbook that I have, "First you are a sponge"

Saying you need to read to be a good writer is like saying you need to be a tourist to be cultured, or watch football to be a footballer.
Reality isn't so easy. instead you need to live in a country to be culturally exposed to it, you need to play the game of football to improve and you need to write and edit to enter the word of writing.
Stare at an illustration for hours if you so choose but it won't make you an illustrator. You won't truly understand the use of colour or line work until you try yourself it's a different experience.

my friend is doing a PhD in writing .........and she can't write. She has dyslexia but so do I.
I'm not sure why no one has told her she has the writing level of an 11 year old.

This is excellent advice. Makes me wonder about the apparent general underestimating of literature and writing as an art form. One wouldn’t necessarily foster the delusions that they might compose a wonderful sonata without having first learned to play the piano, practiced and studied famous composers’ work. And yet with literary ambitions, some of us seem to lack the necessary humility.

And just who the blue blazes is this McEwan chap, anyway? I've never read him.

I never understood this. Aspiring writers? You either write or you don’t.

XXX

Imagine being in the middle of a writing undergrad degree and watching this lol

Hear, hear!

Undergrads shouldn’t be writing yet? How very elitist of him.

I like what he’s saying about undergraduate programs. A professor told us, in a poetry writing class, to get ourselves (our work) out there now, even if we don’t have much experience. I’m not sure where I stand with myself as a person who likes to write, but I always didn’t really agree with that statement. I want to learn, I want to read, and see the connections before I just throw my writing out in the open. I don’t care if I publish (if I ever publish my writing) later in life. I think time and experience is more important.

I have to say, I found this advice fairly surprising (I watched this video some time ago)...I mean...not that writers have to read, but that people are supposed to be influenced by writers they haven't read...how can they be?...

this is what he has not been able to show in his work. seems he loves the sound of words coming out of his mouth.

I searched up 'spongebob writers give advice' and this came up... I didn't even realize he wasn't a spongebob writer, I was just confused on why he wasn't talking about how to write comedy (writers from seasons 1-3 btw) lol, I am an idiot

How many of the greatest writers in history were "undergraduates?"
And since when "to be a novelist" is to do only what "intelectuals" enjoy?
That chick that wrote 50 Shades of Crap IS a writer, we like it or not, right?
I wonder how many PhD's she's got...

Had a student tell me that she wanted to be a writer but she hated to read...

Sad.

"Writers need to Read"-I need to work on this better, "Writers are cut off from Cities, Countryside and Original places"
I find if I go for a walk, a drive to the country or even just sitting down in the park or in the mall and watching how people communicate, their body language and all the other things happening around me, gives me so much energy as to what I could really write about.

I find his explanation to be "by the book" ish you know! If he were to visit a Tibetan temple that's been lost to the world the past 800 years, i imagine he'd try to correct their vernacular because it doesn't conform to Cambridge's portrayal of an 800 year old Tibetan munk and his dialect. Yeesh, loosen Daddy Warbucks

English professors with a little bohemian edge. That alone was worth the listen ;-)

Just sit at your desk and fail. Do it again. Fail. Soon, you will have learnt the power of persistence, amid you're ego, frail and quivering. Persistence, edits out the failure, and a handful of words, may take shape...Success begins...

I personally believe if you read someone for particular thing then somewhere you lose your original thought.

The best way to become a good writer is practice, practice and more practice....

You have to intrgue your reader's, captivate the audience....

Writers are born not made......

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....ZZZZZZZZZZZZ....writing program

snob

I cannot save my other novels. I will try to improve, but I'm not good at delivery. I think my ideas are okay, but my method of craft is lacking. Plus, I have no passion anymore, can't pretend to be other people.

I've always found his work to be barely readable. :/

Hm, I would not agree with suggestions about ''when'' to write. That is not a choice. The person has to write when he or she has to write. And they need discussions about the writing process right then and there, whether they are 7 or 27...It's really not a choice.

Sooooooooooo BORING!!!!!!

I really don't like this man

HELLO

Please, put voice on the two channels!

Excellent.

I am an engineering student about to graduate this summer and this video and many of the comments below made me tear up. This is the first time in my life I find myself with the courage to pursue a dream and any word of encouragement right now touches my soul. Thank you so much you have no idea.

how was this advice for Aspiring writers. he was mostly talking about programs. This has nothing to do with Ian, ITS the TITLE OF THIS THAT WAS DECEIVING???? great respect for his work

Get that first rough draft down without editing as you get the story into words

My right ear enjoyed this very much.

If you don't understand what you are reading, then reading is wasted. A writing course will outline what you are reading in the case that you have missed critical aspects. Every new book offers me new insight, as I am searching for it.

No amount of training will make a writer. You can either write or you can't, and if you can you have to.

I've read Ian McEwan, and the implied, but unstated message here, is that writers have to have lived a life; interacting with folks who are not necessarily literary. It's also obvious, that anyone who imagines they can write a novel without having read extensively, is probably delusional.