He’s right, too – as well as appealingly modest – in thinking that the best teaching is “of value” straightforwardly, as writing itself somehow can’t be. You don’t get up from your writing table believing you’ve done something “of value to the world”. Good writing works in intricate relationship with a reader’s expectations, raising them and leading them on, then sidestepping or surpassing them. Good writing is “the cumulative result of all this repetitive choosing on the line level, those thousands of editing microdecisions”. • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is published by Bloomsbury (RRP £16.99).

Source: The Guardian January 06, 2021 07:30 UTC