How to Write Like Borges

No one can truly write like Borges. There can be only one Borges and any attempt to write exactly like Borges will ultimately prove futile. Jorge Luis Borges, the luminous twentieth century Argentine writer, was a poet, short story writer and essayist. While most highly regarded as a fiction writer, Borges brought a unique philosophical bent to each of his stories, and in this regard is often been compared to Franz Kafka.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Read widely. Borges was an extremely well-read individual with a conversational knowledge of a wide range of topics. To be able to bring this same type of all-encompassing knowledge, one must read and read often. Borges would have his mom read to him, since he was blind. She read him Stevenson, Poe and Jules Verne with great regularity in his youth. However, Borges gained the majority of his knowledge from encyclopedias.

2. Let your imagination run wild. Given Borges' admiration of Poe, Verne and Stevenson, it is not surprising that his fiction tended towards more fantastical plot lines and themes. In, "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," Borges explores a planet whose language contains verbs and adjectives, but no nouns, as the things of the planet go unnamed.

3. Wax philosophical. A great number of Borges' stories favor philosophical exposition over story telling. In these stories, ideas supersede action. For most writers, this is a daring narrative strategy because it is easily susceptible to abstraction and pontification. Borges succeeds in this philosophical endeavor because he maintains a keen attention to detail.

4. Master story structure. To write like Borges, one must have a unique approach to structure, especially as it concerns the narrator's role in the story. Borges' narrators were often removed from the general action or plot of the story. In many cases, the narrator seemed inseparable from the author himself--a literary maneuver that would gain popularity with the meta-fiction writers of postmodernism.

Tips & Warnings

• Write poems and essays as well as short stories, just as Borges did. Buenos Aires and Borges will always be closely linked. It was the city of his youth and inspiration. To understand more fully the atmosphere and culture that inspire the fiction and poetry of Borges, a trip to the Argentine capital could prove immensely illuminating.
• Borges was a master of his craft; don't be discouraged if your writing doesn't come close to the level of Borges, because few if any ever have.

Resources

• Jorge Luis Borges Site