Wednesday, June 04, 2008

On Writing...

Ange posted an amazing post. A quote:

Because you really do need to be incredibly selfish to be a writer.

"Don't speak to me right now! I'm channeling a plot! And turn that music off. It's spoiling the tone of the scene!"

I don't blame my family.
I blame the nature of writing.


The whole post is here, and it's all perfectly true.

The nature of being a writer - a full-time writer - implies a lot of solitary time. That's actually true for any artist. Channeling the muse involves a lot of social introspection. I guess that's why so many writers and artists are odd ducks. It also explains why so many of them are self-involved. You can't spend that much time with yourself without being in love with yourself.

"Wendy" took over a year to write. Your average professional writer could have probably crafted something similar much more quickly. To be fair, "Wendy" was written in a week, and shaped for 51 more, but the premise still stands.

Mookie sequestered himself for most of the past year finishing a manuscript. I have mad respect for him over that; I lack that discipline. Even in my solitary time, it's hard to commit myself to writing. Rather than really write books, I choose to blog and to go out. I love to write, but even more so I enjoy riding my bike and hanging out with my friends. The life of the solitary eccentric is not for me, and I'm happy with my choice.

That being said, it looks as if TFN may be taking an extended business trip, and including some home projects I want to finish, I have a few stories burning holes in my brain right now.

So, I guess there is a time and a place to be the solitary writer. It's just never going to be my first choice.

4 comments:

fineartist said...

I crave being alone, that's when I paint at my best, when I can slop around uninterrupted, bath if I choose to, eat if I have to, peanut butter straight from the jar and smoke myself into a nicotine fog while washing the taste down with whatever wine I have in hanging around.

I crave the solitary life probably because time alone is so little and precious to me.

Jennifer said...

Well said.

Have fun on your road trip. And be safe-ish. Meaning, if you find yourself in the mood to play with grizzly bears, be sure they've eaten recently.

Jennifer said...

(And be sure you've eaten recently, too. You might be dangerous when you're overly hungry.)

Angeline Rose Larimer said...

Wish I'd read this Wednesday.

You're my favorite Gemini now.