A-MAZING AUTHOR

I have just finished reading this book by Alexander McCall Smith. Like a box of Belgian chocolates I know I am going to enjoy every morsal set in the 355 pages of this particular edition.*


I take my time reading his books as I find them thought-provoking. For example, take the following conversation between 2 of the characters, Angus who paints and owns an art gallery and Antonia who is currently occupying her friend's flat/apartment in order to work on her novel:

They are chatting over a cup of coffee:

'How is your book ... your novel going?' Angus inquired politely as he sipped his coffee. 'The one about the Scottish saints?'
Antonia sighed. 'Not very well, I'm afraid My saints, I regret to say, are misbehaving. I had hoped that they would show themselves to be, well, saintly, but they are not. They are distressingly full of human foibles....'

Angus was puzzled. Antonia was talking of her characters as if they had independent lives of their own. But they were her creations, surely, and that meant that they should do their creator's bidding. If she wanted saintly saints, she could have them. 'But you're the author,' he said. 'You can dictate what the people in your book do, can you not?'

And Antonia goes on the explain 'Not at all ... People misunderstand how writers work. They think that they sit down and plan what is going to happen and then simply write it up. But it doesn't work that way.' She explains ... 'The author is not in control. Or, rather, the conscious mind of the author is not in control. And the reason for this is that when we use our imagination we get in touch with that part of the mind which is asking the "what if" questions. And that is not part of the conscious mind.'


And they go on to discuss this some more ending up with Antonia saying 'The unconscious mind is asking questions and then exploring possible outcomes. These then surface in the conscious words, in the same way perhaps as speech surfaces, and become the words that tell the story. And exactly the same thing happens when somebody writes a piece of music or, I should imagine, paints a picture.' [Chapter 102: Antonia Expounds, pages 317 - 318.]

Very thought-provoking! I think he is talking about the nature of creativity here. If I tried to write a story I wonder where it would take me?


I am afraid any attempt I make would probably start and end with a game that wee Ishie and I have made up for ourselves, i.e. You Then Me Storytelling. It goes something like this:

Me: "Once upon a time there was a ..." and then it is over to
Her: "dog and it lived on a farm. One day it walked down the road and saw a ..."
Me: ... and I would think of something outrageous ... and so it would go until
"They all lived happily ever after."

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Alexander McCall Smith, Love Over Scotland - A 44 Scotland Street novel, Abacus, 2009.