How to Write (2 page)
Authors: Gertrude Stein
All this just about covers everything. The only thing left for a creative artist to do in his life is to do his chosen work in spite of everything and regardless of anything because when living draws to an end there are no excuses he can make to himself or to anyone else for not having done it. Either he did it or he did not do it and very often he did not. Alas very often he did not.
I once said in How To Write a book I wrote about Sentences and Paragraphs, that paragraphs were emotional and sentences were not. Paragraphs are emotional not because they express an emotion but because they register or limit an emotion. Compare paragraphs with sentences any paragraph or any sentence and you will see what I mean. (WIEL, LIA 48)
In a book I wrote called How To Write I made a discovery which I considered fundamental, that sentences are not emotional and that paragraphs are. I found out about language that paragraphs are emotional and sentences are not and I found out something else about it. I found out that this difference was not a contradiction but a combination and that this combination causes one to think endlessly about sentences and paragraphs because the emotional paragraphs are made up of unemotional sentences. (Plays, LIA 93)
In a book called How To Write I worked a lot at this thing trying to find out just exactly what the balance the unemotional balance of a sentence is and what the emotional balance of a paragraph is and if it were possible to make even in a short sentence the two things come to be one. I think I did a few times succeed. (PAG, LIA 225)
Such a simple discovery that is simple once it is stated and it is exactly so. When you come to make a paragraph you do it because you feel like it. Rationalize it how you will but you make a paragraph when you feel like it.
A Sentence is not emotional a paragraph is. (HTW 23)
What is the difference between a question and answer. (33)
The great question is can you think a sentence. (35)
Successions of words are so agreeable. It is about this. (39)
A grammar has been called a list of what is to be done with it. (56)
Is there grammar in a title. There is grammar in a title. Thank you. (64)
Grammar has nothing to do with form. (99)
This is interesting. If you are a structural artist as GS was you never think about the totality of anything when you create. You are always concerned about the parts the stitches or potatoes as GS calls them. The step by step assembling of units which may lead to a form but is never conceived at the beginning unless it is one that you personally invented and arrived at.
I am having it. Is that a possible tense. No it is not. (106)
A narrative might be why they visited one another one earlier and one later. (228)
What is it. What is it. A narrative, a conclusion a narrative comes to be to tell everything to them simply they had to have their coming to be seen that each cup not each saucer had a wild animal upon it. How many cups not only cups and saucers have to be following when they have had no opportunity for further display. No opportunity for further display. It might often be that they liked that. Every day it came to be darker at four than at five. And so forth. (229)
A narrative is the telling about simple things like coming to visit and seeing cups with a wild animal painted on them. Really it makes no sense to rephrase GS although doing it sometimes helps to know what she was doing. Is it possible that the only way in which to understand a painting is to try and reproduce it yourself and become involved in all the actions and decisions of the painter. Maybe.
Bother is a word that transgresses meaning. (108)
Forget grammar and think about potatoes. (109)
Or think about words now instead of grammar.
Back to thinking about grammar.
Grammar. Fills me with delight. (106)
I am a grammarian I do not hesitate but I rearrange prepositions. (109)
What are adverbs. . .. An adverb is a change. (117, 118)
A noun is the name of the calling which they have made in their time as known. (121)
How can I possibly say that any better than GS says it. A noun is the name that you call anything by as it is known by that name at a given moment in history. That does it but I did not invent the idea and my saying it does not have thirty years of writing experience in it. Being an artist takes time. A lot of time which has to pass doing it and then it comes out smoothly so that anyone thinks he can do it. But he can’t because it takes ten and twenty and thirty years of doing it to be able to do it.
Think in stitches. Think in sentences. (138)
Stitches are individual words like potatoes. Units.
A sentence has a as an article the as an article an as an article. A sentence has also a pause before they go. (136)
That’s clear enough.
What is a sentence. . . . A sentence is made of a verb and a noun. (138)
Think of a sentence. Start a sentence begin a sentence with with. With them. They went with them. . . . All this is when a sentence is after all made in advance as they think. With that they are not able to remain behind. (174)
All that precedes demonstrates sentences made at the time of thinking. That is thinking and writing done together so that no part of you or the action is separate or behind any other part.
All around these words and sentences are the actual expressions of GS thinking about these things. HOW TO WRITE is a concentration of GS thinking about words, sentences, paragraphs, grammar and narrative. There is no better way of understanding it than by trying it yourself. If you sit down and copy out sentences that you like you can really begin to feel the woman, the thought and the feelings that go into her work. It is a spontaneous creation of writing thinking and feeling all done at the same time. A remarkable achievement that leaves you with a feeling of gratitude that there always have been and hopefully always will be a few dedicated and serious artists who no matter what difficulties there are will somehow manage to be creative and vitally productive all their lives. They do it and they are examples for those who follow.
Thanks GS.
My writing is clear as mud, but mud settles and clear streams run on and disappear . . . (EA 123)
Mr. Owen Young made a mistake, he said the only thing he wished his son to have was the power of clearly expressing his ideas. Not at all. It is not clarity that is desirable but force.
Clarity is of no importance because nobody listens and nobody knows what you mean no matter what you mean, nor how clearly you mean what you mean. But if you have vitality enough of knowing enough of what you mean, somebody and sometime and sometimes a great many will have to realize that you know what you mean and so they will agree that you mean what you know, what you know you mean, which is as near as anybody can come to understanding anyone. (HJ, FIA 127)
PATRICIA MEYEROWITZ
New York City
References Used in the Introduction
(in the sequence in which they are quoted)
| LIA | LECTURES IN AMERICA (1934) |
| Beacon Press, Boston, 1957 | |
| EA | EVERYBODY’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY (1936) |
| Vintage, New York, 1973 | |
| WAM | WHAT ARE MASTER-PIECES (1922-36) |
| Conference Press, Los Angeles, 1940 | |
| GMMA | The Gradual Making of the Making of Americans (1934) |
| GCA | Genuine Creative Ability (1930) |
| PRIMER | A PRIMER FOR THE GRADUAL UNDERSTANDING OF GERTRUDE STEIN |
| Ed. Robert Bartlett Haas | |
| Black Sparrow Press, Los Angeles, 1971 | |
| CAE | Composition As Explanation (1926) |
| PENG. | GERTRUDE STEIN: WRITINGS AND LECTURES 1909-1945 |
| Ed. Patricia Meyerowitz | |
| Penguin Books, Inc., Baltimore, 1971 | |
| TI | A Transatlantic Interview (1946) |
| WIEL | What Is English Literature (1934) |
| PAG | Poetry and Grammar (1934) |
| HTW | HOW TO WRITE (1927-31) |
| Plain Edition, Paris, 1931 | |
| HJ | Henry James (c. 1932) |
| FIA | FOUR IN AMERICA (1932-3) |
| Yale University Press, New Haven, 1947 |
Qu’est-ce que c’est cette comédie d’un chien. Que le dit train est bien celui qui doit les conduire a leur destination. Manifestement éveillé.
When he will see
When he will see
When he will see the land of liberty.
The scene changes it is a stone high up against with a hill and there is and above where they will have time. Not higher up below is a ruin which is a castle and there will be a color above it. Painting now after its great moment must come back to be a minor art.
Will be welcome.
We will be welcome.
Should be put upon a hill. Across which it is placed upon different hills. Lower hills have a mark they mean.
When a dog is no longer a lap dog there is a temporary inattention. Then they will seem to be sent together. It is a noise not of tapestry but of wood which when lighted in three logs makes a fire.
It makes it do that they do cry when in an assistance.
What is a sentence. A sentence is a part of a speech.
A speech. They knew that beside beside is colored like a word beside why there they went. That is a speech. Anybody will listen. What is romantic. I was astonished to learn that she was led by her head and her head was not with her head her head was leading when her heart stood still. She was certain to be left away with them. Dear Christian you are very sweet without hope. Hope is for you.
A blue sky can reflect in a lake.
Speeches are in answer.
We will enjoy with and without that it is said that they do present well.
Buy me a present.
Better than all for the best.
Now in thinking.
The scene opens and they have a valley before them.
Francine which is a name of a young woman who has changed very much in five years hoped to be married that is not hoped but attended to the waiting which was not intentional she was very well occupied. When it came to friendship she said after all marriage meant that they were eager and marrying. And they were without any pleasure in not arranging their wedding. Will it be soon. They will be married after waiting two years during which time they had not become acquainted with one another as they had as often met before. It is a failure in a way it is a failure.
A hill which we see before as often.
We are finally with me.
When this you see will he. A plain case of separation. Will she separate well from him. Well from him is what he thought.
Around Rome.
Rome is a capital. With pleasure in their insistence.
Linden trees do not grow only where there is a home. Linden trees do not grow only where there is a home.
There is a home in and around on account of a he meant well with out repaying. Without repaying who was whose. It would not do.
Four people accompanied by a caniche. They went where they had liked a well with. Whom were they known to be there.
It is ours.
Prevail.
Part of a mail.
The Saracens had been absent from this country. In beggary.
A chateau which from the later time had its roof taken off for cheapness had been made when they went away. Why did not Archie come with a pharmacist. It would not be in might be in time if they never answered.
How are how do you do to be discriminated. There is a mistake in a witness. Fog is wet when there is land and it is white. Fog is wet when there is land and it is white.
It was part of it before. And now. There is a little more. And so there is more than before. Water comes before butter. And moving around. Change butter and paper. What did he weigh in happen. Apart disposed deposed that he went. In a room with a fire that he had for his share. A chair. Following roses.
Now and then there is more to it within when they send for it then.
How is sentiment maintained.
A pause.
A rain makes transplanting following easy. Thank you for thinking of the rain. Once or twice they had left what is ours allowed. A welcome to following.
He in chopping a stick flew to the eye that is hand and clover. Which they had. He was pleased to have the sea of meadow which was below theirs. It was joined and generally resembled when it is and belongs to all which they rent. They were able to have half of it altogether. There were others who had heard more. They will be more for all. However it is kindly.
When they like help they like help. They have it. They like it for them. They have it. They make the most of it which is why they wish. They will wish to have it. Made for them what they have in the way of advising and they need hope. They will allow themselves all for it. They might without which wish. In a way. They must like whatever they do.
It is very old that they like a chateau. Oh well who can be better.
What is the interest in character by saying he understood others.
There is no use in finding out what is in anybody’s mind. There is no use in finding out what is in anybody’s mind.
What is the difference between sentiment and romance.
What are they leaving they are leaving.
There is some difference between sentiment and romance. Sentiment is awhile and weighed as a weight and romance is made to be authentic. There is no use in knowing why they went because it is made important by their means.
All talk of how well they thought of it.
She was right to be bright.
Edith was right.
Scenery is a valley in moon-light.
Scenery is left of a valley in moon-light.
Below there is a lightened mist.
There is on the height before it makes it come a light cross which is there.
She cannot see it because the sky is light. The sky when it is light is bright.
Explanations make me think of what do they think.
No mention of a little dog.
It is here that they are putting manure.
It is very nicely made that is offering a very small piece of apple not offering but from time to time giving a very small piece of apple pear a single grape to him. He is very obliging, he relinquishes something.
She is not made to be carefully advised when it is well-known as a considerable withdrawal.
A house with health and happiness.
After it is finished before with a smaller well made winding it as a time when they know. Think of an electric clock.
How can they think that they think that they mean theirs.
That is it.
Fortune is told.
For them to be always an amount.
It is gracious to have a cool evening and agreeable though not necessitating it.
What is it.
If they are to be known.
A time in which we will believe they know and marry me.
A setting, the influence of a hill and on which snow and woods are abundant.
If they had been able they would have gone to see it.
How can one know who links what are they with a chain. They are appropriate.
I would like very much to stay longer in the country.
If they look and see two grown where they went.
It is full of finally why me.
When this you see remember me. This is a very fine sentence.
Occasions.
When they were able to have it all their way.
A frog is just like Basket for all the world.
Never to give to him because it is very well to be made mine.
Each word has twenty-two beside.
Will they follow when they go she has let her scissors go so they fell.
Each sentence has adroitness as they decide.
What is a dog.
There is no answer to what they think.
Now in English they mean very well for once.
Now translate that to now in English they mean very well for once.
A hope.
Will be fed.
Now in which they had a pleasure in their having cried when their chimney had been on fire.
A sentence has wishes as an event.
To return to the hoping of pleasing.
They will not be interested in two for a cent.
It is pretty in the country.
Never follow before with them. This is what they mean.
Moonlight means rain.
Once they have the means of saying theirs when they like.
Will when they leave will they think that they will have it for them.
It is a hop from here to there.
Do they like him when they feel for them.
A management of traces of plainly strawberry and raspberry leaves of which there are plants.
Think well of having rested for awhile.
Accidentally met lieutenant Foreman.
A bishop likes a parcel.
This is not true because he is not a bishop
Awhile are they are better every once in a while.
They after all mean more to each other.
A chrysanthemum in bloom is more easily tied together.
Here is an effort.
It is of no use laying places for dinner since because of a turning settlement they will choose passes. In every direction they can as well see a hill as a box. A box is hedges. Little and low with news from without them. It is after that they went away.
I know who cried about Etta.
There is no difference between whether they cried or not.
Never believe that water is accredited to midsummer, or more of winter. We do know that it changes from day to day.
If opposites are equal.
If it comes one after the other furs are farther in fur bearing animals.
I do not know nor do I know if he thinks with them or without me.
What is a sentence for if I am I then my little dog knows me. Even if it is all tenderness. What is tenderness. First there must be a way of going without waiting. There are two things a dictionary and the country.
Think of reason.
It looks like it.
What looks like it.
Discouragement looks like it.
I have never been so sorry about anything as I was about Friday.
If they look like it.
They must fasten apples with quinces. Fatten a dog. Leave well enough alone.
Who has heard that they like it.
It is easy to say it another way. I will refuse.
They will not be heard when they feel well. If they accomplish anything. Still it is better.
Did anybody hear me sing to-day.
Who has whose head.
Did four leave four for long.
A thing that is discouraging is to come along. Five minutes to ten. It is very remarkable.
How are hours divided by themselves.
Four times fifty three leaves them alone.
Balance of quinces.
Five hopes that they had made them sing and left for them they are quite well if it does which means that they are alike for liking.
October is a name.
So is Basket a name.
Graves is a name.
Flowers is a name.
A dictionary.
A dog. If felt as a word it would mean that they approached and if you knew them as seeing then they leave and so there is no fear of not at all, why do they flush. This is a dog. He may have a sluggish liver.
Not found.
A noun is a name of anything. There is no hope of their pleasure.
It is very nice to change your mind about roses.
Please have it with all without it.
It is very strange but it is true that they did say it because however alike they found it.
There is no doubt that I like the thing they have for use for me.
It is an hour after they came.
May be with them.
No doubt may be with them.
No doubt may be with them no doubt may be.
May be with them may be. May be they may be.
It is easy to hide a hope.
Have meant.
A little goes a long way.
How many houses are there.
There is a house near where there is a bridge. They were willing to be there.
Hours out of it in adjoining them.
It is why forty is not arithmetic with wonder.
Any time that they go they stay. How are ours with lain for it.
It is not that it has been inhabited.
I have never been as proud of anything as I am of snow on the mountain opposite.
Betty is leaving her home or at any rate where she is.
What is it that they would have what is it that they would have gotten if they had it.
Hers and his the houses are hers and his the valley is hers and his the dog named Basket is hers and his also the respect of the populace is hers and his.
He has found something which is and has been his which has been left for him by him and by this time means something insofar as they say they hope that it is satisfactory.
What will it look like, it will happen so quickly although it is all there that it will not be left with them.
A scenery is romantic if there are steps about. Also a place to have marked as awhile. A place is romantic if there are not moments of welcoming having as much as theirs in the apportioning with without sent. It is difficult to remember. Will they miss her.
It was when he did behavior as a blessing. Yes not being with remembering that is what is going if it was not looked at. If having asked it to be put away. He put it away having asked it to be put away. If the weather is what is expected. Romantic makes herds better. One dog looks like a sheep because he trusts them.
Be beware.
Pour little soul.
A change in custom.
What is the difference.
One is generally told that they mean me.
How many sentences are there after all around me. How many sentences begin with at nearly four.
Thank you for the difference in me.
One thoroughly two thoroughly three thoroughly. Three is after all. They were there after all.
Painstaking.
She impressed me.
What makes forty forfeit.
No man no men do.
Are three arrangements.
I made a mistake.
