How To Write

Anton ChekhovIn 1886, Anton Checkhov wrote a letter to his brother Alexander in which he stated a list of conditions prose must fulfill to be considered art by him. They were:
  1. no long eruptions of words of a social, political or economical nature
  2. uninterrupted objectivity
  3. realistic description of persons and things
  4. dual succinctness (both in size and in formulation)
  5. daring and originality
  6. honesty

I wonder how much prose is being produced by fiction-writing hopefuls that fulfills all of these requirements. And I shudder to think how much writing out there fulfills none of these requirements.

Posted by cronopio at 12:48 AM, December 11, 2002