Henry Miller on Writing -Thomas H. Moore, editor

 

"The million words or so which I had written previously, which were intelligible words, mind you, well ordered, well connected, were as nothing to me - crude ciphers from the old stone age - because the contact was through the head and the head is a useless appendage unless you're anchored in mid-channel deep in the mud. Everything I had written before was museum stuff, and most writing is still museum stuff and that's why it doesn't catch fire, doesn't inflame the world."

 

Henry Miller recounts the event one afternoon at a New York theater that set off an inner explosion, blasting a hole to the innermost depths of his soul so that he finally had access to the lava and fires of his authentic voice as a writer.

"I had to learn, as I soon did, that one must give up everything and not do anything else but write, that one must write and write and write, even if everybody in the world advises you against it, even if nobody believes in you. Perhaps one does it just because nobody believes; perhaps the real secret lies in making people believe." 

 

Henry Miller on persistence. In many respects, this is the first lesson for any writer at any point in their writing, rank beginner to seasoned veteran: rather than brooding or moping or gabbing about what you would like to write, gather your energy and sit down and write and write and write. Nothing happens unless you firmly plant your ass on the chair and write.

"Today, when I think of the circumstances under which I wrote that book, when I think of the overwhelming material which I tried to put into form, when I think of what I hoped to encompass, I pat myself on the back, I give myself a double A. I am proud of the fact that I made such a miserable failure of it; had I succeeded I would have been a monster." 

 

Sometimes our failures teach us more than our successes. I recall a number of years ago writing a full-length novel. I read it over a couple of times and came to a realization: I'm not a novelist. Of all the creative endeavors I've engaged in over the years - playing renaissance music, performing street theater, mask acting, dance, writing prose poems, drumming - the time I spent writing that novel was, by far, my least satisfying artistic endeavor. Never again! As a creative artist and writer, much better to go with what you love.

"If I had long been reading the face of the world with the eyes of a writer, I now read it anew with even greater intensity. Nothing was too petty to escape my attention." 

 

Brilliant advice for a writer in any literary form: pay keen attention to detail. As I've come to discover, this also goes for writing reviews: if you are having trouble writing about a book in general, overarching terms, dig deeper into the details, focus your writing on a key chapter or theme, or, digging even deeper, zero in on a series of the author's sentences and share your observations, feelings, ideas about those authorial words.

"Sometimes I would sit at the machine for hours without even writing a line. Fired by an idea, often an irrelevant one, my thoughts would come too fast to be transcribed. I would be dragged along at a gallop, like a stricken warrior tied to his chariot." 

 

See! There were even times when the great Henry Miller struggled at his writing desk. I suspect the next time Henry sat down at his machine, he probably wrote for hours, deep into the night and maybe even the next morning.

"Thus, not so strangely, I developed a kind of painter's eye. Often I made it my business to return to a certain spot in order to review "a still life" which I had passed too hurriedly that day before or three days before." 

 

Another gem of advice: refine and develop your sense of words and rhythm of language but also expand your sensual involvement with the world - the eye of an art critic, the ear of a music connoisseur, the grace of a dancer.

"Thus, whilst sedulously and slavishly imitating the ways of the masters - tools and technic, in other words - my instincts were rising up in revolt. If I craved magic powers it was not to rear new structures, not to add to the Tower of Babel, but to destroy, to undermine. The novel I had to write." 

 

Learning technique and the rules of writing from literary masters is important but even more critical: developing your own voice and vision.

"If I was unhappy in America, if I craved more room, more adventure, more freedom of expression, it was because I needed these things. I am grateful to America for having made me realize my needs. I served my sentence there. At present I have no needs. I am a man without a past and without a future. I am - that is all."

 

Good going, Henry. You "served your sentence" in the air-conditioned nightmare but you never were trapped by it or continually felt the need to react to it.

"There are huge blocks in my life which are gone forever. Huge blocks gone, scattered, wasted in talk, action, reminiscence, dream. There was never any time when I was living one life, the life of a husband, a lover, a friend."

 

One clear lesson I takeaway here: if you want to write - strike when the iron is hot. Don't postpone your writing to some future time. When you reach the future, you will be a different you, thus, if you write at all, your writing will be different.

"To discuss the nature and meaning of obscenity is almost as difficult as to talk about God."  

 

The last chapter of Henry Miller on Writing is dedicated to writing and obscenity, reflections by the master you will not want to miss.