I think it's really important to talk about how (*&^% hard the writing process really is. (Forget the writers who say they "follow their pen" and if writing isn't a pleasure all the time, why do it? We don't need to concern ourselves with the likes of them.)
Keeping me afloat these past days are other writer friends. We all seem to be struggling with new novels, and talking about the struggle, the angst, the messiness of the process really helps me realize that I've been in these treacherous waters before, and sooner or later, I'll start to swim. Sometimes you just need to hear that yes, it's hard, yes, it's awful, yes, you start thinking you should have gone to dental school, but this is what it is.
So back I go into the river, against the currents, with the sharks.
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7 comments:
As a reader, I just have to say that I have every respect for you (and others) as a writer. I don't understand it, can't fathom it (my brain just doesn't work that way, I guess) but SO MUCH appreciate that you do what you do! Thank you for doing it. (And I hope it goes better for you.)
C:
Yeah.. anyone who says writing is a beautiful thing filled with pixies and butterflies and the music of the spheres are either smoking pot, a lot, or in serious denial. Writing is the literary equivalent of water boarding, and rather than run the other way to relief, we keep going back to the torturer asking for more! We writers are sick f#@*ks. And the world is better off for it... and so are we writers.
J (glub glub)
Hey, thank you back, Caroline - today while we were sending emails of angst back and forth,you suggested some basic questions I should be asking about my characters that may have helped me over the next hump. Of course, there's a shark-filled ditch over that hump,but I'll burn that bridge when I get there....
Yes it's hard, yes it's awful, and NO you should have not gone to dental school!
I am completely stuck at the starters gate. Lines of dialouge and prose keep coming to me...but they seem to lead nowhere and back to the beginning I go. Sigh. But hearing how you and others struggle and your generous insights into the struggle, really does help me to tone down the panic. So, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.
And if you want a good laugh...wander over to my blog today.
G:)
Caroline, we who toil away in the mines, chipping away a little bit every day with a blunt teaspoon, sometimes have to remind ourselves that the ONLY THING worse than writing is not writing.
Thank you all so much for these wonderful comments. Katharine, you nailed it. Absolutely, the worst thing is not writing. That's important (crucial) to remember!
I can't believe that such an immensely talented writer as yourself struggles at all. Makes me feel a wee bit better...then again when someone like you struggles too, it means these feelings never go away? uh oh...
Just write and I think it will all work itself out through the story. You are brilliant.
xoo
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