{"id":5764,"date":"2009-09-28T10:59:53","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T14:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=5764"},"modified":"2009-09-28T10:59:53","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T14:59:53","slug":"on-the-page-vs-around-the-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/on-the-page-vs-around-the-table\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Page vs.<\/em> Around the Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

From yesterday’s New York Times Book Review<\/em>, we have an essay on “When Writers Speak<\/a>“:<\/p>\n

Like most writers, I seem to be smarter in print than in person. In fact, I am smarter when I’m writing. I don’t claim this merely because there is usually no one around to observe the false starts and groan-inducing sentences that make a mockery of my presumed intelligence, but because when the work is going well, I’m expressing opinions that I’ve never uttered in conversation and that otherwise might never occur to me…<\/p>\n

I’m willing to bet that more gray matter starts quivering when I sit down to write than when I stand up to speak. In fact, if you were to do an M.R.I. of my brain right now, you would see regions of it lighting up that barely flicker when I talk. How do I know this? Because I’m writing<\/em>! In fact, I’m so smart right now that I know my cerebral cortex is employing a host of neurons that are cleverly and charmingly transforming my thoughts and feelings into words. But if I were talking to you about all this, a different set of neurons would be triggered, different connections and associations would be made, and different words and phrases would be generated. In short, I’d be boring the pants off you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of which raises a whole lot of questions in my head (while putting a smile on my face).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I often wonder what readers of RAMH<\/em> must be like in person. You’re mostly (all?) writers, after all. Sufficiently entertaining and\/or provocative writers, at that, else your regular cast of commenters and lurkers wouldn’t return, post after post.<\/p>\n

And after all, if you see writers interviewed on TV or hear them in podcasts, not all (maybe none?) of them rely on cue cards, as Nabokov apparently did. They crack up at an interviewer’s question. They stop and think, and then offer up amazingly funny and\/or insightful observations. Put Neil Gaiman, say, in front of a camera and he seems exactly like the person who puts those words on the page.<\/p>\n

Not all of these can be rehearsed, can they? Can it really be that writers on publicity tours have had all<\/em> these questions asked before, enabling them to sharpen their answers with practice?<\/p>\n

One of my favorite things in the world is sitting around talking with friends and family, or heck just with The Missus. I like to think I’m a good conversationalist. But then I think back to all the times when I went to a party where I knew the host but no one else. I think back to all the abortive attempts by cordial strangers to get me talking, and of how I fumbled and flailed about inarticulately.<\/p>\n

(Yesterday, I took the Yorkie out for a walk up the block. Per usual, given her teeny legs, she made it pretty much to the end of the block on her own but required a lift for the return trip. As we went by a neighbor’s house, he greeted me and said, by way of conversation, that he’d noticed that I often carried Sophie on the way back to the house from a walk. I replied, “Yeah, she’s a specialist. She does the outbound end, not the inbound.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth I wanted to recall them, or one of them anyhow. You fool<\/em>, I thought to myself, the word you want there is “leg,” not “end.” Whoever heard of an outbound <\/em>end? Nobody, that’s who. And you call yourself a writer?<\/em> Etc., etc., etc.)<\/p>\n

What’s your experience? Is there a correlation — even a negative one? Do you talk as well as you write? (And let’s hear none of those cringing “Well, I don’t actually write very well” disclaimers, either.) Do other writers you’ve met?<\/p>\n

(And, as a bonus, barely-related question: Is there any correlation between how you speak — well or otherwise — and how you write dialog?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From yesterday’s New York Times Book Review, we have an essay on “When Writers Speak“: Like most writers, I seem to be smarter in print than in person. In fact, I am smarter when I’m writing. I don’t claim this merely because there is usually no one around to observe the false starts and groan-inducing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,5,372],"tags":[329,1413,1414,1415],"class_list":{"0":"post-5764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-everyday-life","7":"category-06_writing","8":"category-style-and-craft","9":"tag-new-york-times-book-review","10":"tag-conversation","11":"tag-writers","12":"tag-on-the-page-vs-around-the-table","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-1uY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5764"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5774,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5764\/revisions\/5774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}