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	<title>S.D. Smith &#187; Plum</title>
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		<title>For You Writers: An Interview with P.G. Wodehouse</title>
		<link>http://www.sdsmith.net/2009/07/08/for-you-writers-an-interview-with-p-g-wodehouse/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sdsmith.net/2009/07/08/for-you-writers-an-interview-with-p-g-wodehouse/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>S.D. Smith</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[(Alleged) Humor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Books and Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Quotations from My Betters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing on Writing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[humor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[P.G. Wodehouse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sdsmith.net/wordpress/?p=1273</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I found this link to a fascinating interview with the late, great humorist when he was in his early nineties. I found his advice to people writing humorous stories very valuable and several of his suggestions challenge my current approach. So I am encouraged by the opportunity for growth.
Here&#8217;s a small portion taken from the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1276" title="pgw" src="http://www.sdsmith.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/pgw.jpg" alt="pgw" width="104" height="133" />I found this link to <a href="http://www.abebooks.co.uk/docs/RareBooks/pg-wodehouse.shtml">a fascinating interview </a>with the late, great humorist when he was in his early nineties. I found his advice to people writing humorous stories very valuable and several of his suggestions challenge my current approach. So I am encouraged by the opportunity for growth.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a small portion taken from the <a href="http://www.abebooks.co.uk/docs/RareBooks/pg-wodehouse.shtml">website of AbeBooks. The interview they have posted</a> was from a 1975 interview in <em>The Paris Review</em>.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;INTERVIEWER:</em></p>
<p><em>If you were asked to give advice to somebody who wanted to write humorous fiction, what would you tell him?</em></p>
<p><em>WODEHOUSE:</em></p>
<p><em>I&#8217;d give him practical advice, and that is always get to the dialogue as soon as possible. I always feel the thing to go for is speed. Nothing puts the reader off more than a great slab of prose at the start. I think the success of every novel &#8211; if it&#8217;s a novel of action &#8211; depends on the high spots. The thing to do is to say to yourself, &#8220;What are my big scenes?&#8221; and then get every drop of juice out of them. </em></p>
<p><em>The principle I always go on in writing a novel is to think of the characters in terms of actors in a play. I say to myself, if a big name were playing this part, and if he found that after a strong first act he had practically nothing to do in the second act, he would walk out. Now, then, can I twist the story so as to give him plenty to do all the way through? I believe the only way a writer can keep himself up to the mark is by examining each story quite coldly before he starts writing it and asking himself it is all right as a story. </em></p>
<p><em>I mean, once you go saying to yourself, &#8220;This is a pretty weak plot as it stands, but if I&#8217;m such a hell of a writer that my magic touch will make it okay,&#8221; you&#8217;re sunk. If they aren&#8217;t in interesting situations, characters can&#8217;t be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them.</em></p>
<p><em>INTERVIEWER:</em></p>
<p><em>What do you think makes a story funny?</em></p>
<p><em>WODEHOUSE:</em></p>
<p><em>I think character mostly. You know instinctively what&#8217;s funny and what isn&#8217;t if you&#8217;re a humorous writer. I don&#8217;t think a man can deliberately sit down to write a funny story unless he has got a sort of slant on life that leads to funny stories. If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It&#8217;s probably because you were born that way. Lord Emsworth and his pig &#8211; I know they&#8217;re funny.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p>Never read PGW? This is the first of his novels I read. <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/themapmoustoc-20/detail/158567575X">Try it out out </a>and just you try not to laugh<em>.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/themapmoustoc-20/detail/158567575X"><em><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1278" title="springfever" src="http://www.sdsmith.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/springfever-200x300.jpg" alt="springfever" width="200" height="300" /></em></a></p>
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