UPDATE: The Getaway Car is no longer on Amazon! If it returns, I will update this page.
Ann Patchett provides practical advice on writing in The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life.
The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life. 4.17 Rating details 1,903 ratings 255 reviews. “The journey from the head to the hand is. In this Byliner Original, 'The Getaway Car' is a delightful autobiography-cum-user's guide that appeals to both aspiring writers and anyone who loves a great story. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ann Patchett is the author of eight books, including 'Bel Canto,' which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, England's Orange Prize, and the Book Sense Book of the Year and has been translated into more than thirty languages. Official website for Ann Patchett, owner of Parnassus Books and international best-selling author of Bel Canto, State of Wonder, and Commonwealth.
I’ve written four books, numerous short stories and several screenplays. The questions I get most about writing are the practical ones. What do you write with? Where do you write? How do you find time to write?
Answers to these questions are supplied by novelist Ann Patchett in The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life. It’s like a FAQ for aspiring writers.
Writing is a Habit
Do you need to get an MFA in Creative Writing? Not if it means going into debt, according the prudent Patchett.
Should you turn your desk away from the window, to avoid distractions? “Desk positioning does not a real writer make,” according to the author.
Author Ann Patchett Biography
Are you really a writer? Spend one hour a day for thirty days writing to find out. Sit down and do the work. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish.
She also believes that writer’s block is a myth. If you were stumped by a complicated math problem, do you have math block? No, you’re still working on the problem, even if you have no evident progress.
Writing is Craft
Patchett also punctures the idea that “everyone has a great novel in them.” Would you say that everyone has a five-minute mile in them? Writing is a craft that must be learned.
The Getaway Car Ann Patchett Essay Pdf
Her description of plot is the best I’ve ever read:
The plot of a novel should be like walking down a busy city street: First there are all the other people around you, the dog walkers and the skateboarders, the couples fighting, the construction guys swearing and shouting, the pretty girl on teetering heels who causes those construction guys to turn around for a split second of silence. There are drivers hitting the brakes, diving birds slicing between buildings, and the suddenly ominous clouds banking to the west. All manner of action and movement is rushing towards you and away. But that isn’t enough. You should also have the storefronts at street level and the twenty stories of apartments full of people and their babies and their dreams. Below the street, there should be infrastructure: water, sewer, electricity. Maybe there’s a subway down there as well, and it’s full of people.
The Getaway Car Essay
This rang true with me. A novel can’t be just about one thing. All your characters, even the most minor ones, are heading somewhere, pursuing their own destinies. They exist in a dynamic world and, if it’s a good novel, are worthy of stories of their own.
Ann Patchett The Getaway Car A Practical Memoir About Writing And Life
The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life is a Kindle Single. It’s a slim volume but at $2.99 is a bargain for anyone seeking answers on the craft of writing and the realities of the writing life.