To recapitulate qualifications which are useful but not essential: the ability to endure the physical discipline of writing, that is, to sit at a typewriter and write; the ability to persist and absorb the discouragement of rejection and the even deadlier discouragement that comes from your own bad writing; insight into the motives of others; ability to think in concrete visual terms; a grounding in general reading. Now assume that the student has at least some of these qualifications. What can he be taught about writing?
It is of course easier to tell someone how not to write than how to write. Remember for example that a bad title can sink a good book or a good one sell a bad book. But it can sink a film faster and deeper, because a film has just one shot to make it. A book with a bad title or a slow beginning may make a comeback –– a film just gets one chance. Here again there are no absolute rules, but there are guidelines. A good title gives the reader an image and arouses his interest in the image. Bad titles convey negative images, refer to images which the audience cannot understand until they see the film, or convey no image at all. Titles of more than three words are to be avoided –– such turn-off titles as The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker. The Conformist is a turn-off title. Those of you who have seen the film will know it is about a fascist who ends up denouncing his blind friend as a fascist when Mussolini falls. The Survival Artist would have been a better title.
Technology of Writing [Reprinted in The Adding Machine: Selected Essays (1986)]
Use the link below to read more about the life and work of North American novelist, visual artist and spoken word performer WILLIAM SEWARD BURROUGHS II (1914–1997):
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/502203/10-unconventional-facts-about-william-burroughs
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