So much truth

[veronica_rich]

Commandeered from poetic_self's LJ. Samuel R. Delany: About Writing

Writers are people who write. By and large, they are not happy people. They're not good at relationships. Often they're drunks. And writing -- good writing -- does not get easier and easier with practice. It gets harder and harder -- so eventually the writer must stall out into silence.The silence that waits for every writer and that, inevitably, if only with death (if we're lucky the two may happen at the same time: but they are still two, and their coincidence is rare), the writer must fall into is angst-ridden and terrifying - and often drives us mad. (In a letter to Allen Tate, the poet Hart Crane once described writing as "dancing on dynamite.") So if you're not a writer, consider yourself fortunate.

(I think I'm going to add this to my LJ's introductory post.)

Comments

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

Some of us really do struggle just to produce something readable, while others regularly flow out inspirational copy.

I think we all struggle. So much of ourselves is on that page that it takes an awfully brave person to put stuff out there and take the praise with the disdain. But I really don't understand the mindset where we are alienated from everyone (you and I have become friends because of our WRITING!), and we should wallow in our alienation, and whatever jerkiness (or excessive drinking) occurs is because we are writers. No, that is unacceptable to me. Yes, you can agonize over your writing. Yes, you can get those mean reds and feel inadquate and heaps of self-disgust (which I do, more often that I ever let on), but I don't think we are a special little club that allows us to be jerks just because we are writers.

This is such a bleak and FATALISTIC viewpoint. In fact, it says to me what's the point of writing at ALL, because eventually you'll become so paralyzed with self-disgust that you won't be able to type a simple sentence without reaching for the vodka. If I felt that way, I'd sell my laptop right now. I see myself, hopefully, on a continuum. Getting better. Hopefully. And I might not, that remains to be seen, but I don't see myself writing toward silence. I see myself writing toward greater clarity, better command of my gifts, increased awareness of how language works, in short, I see it as a learning process, not a death march.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

WHOA NELLIE. Back up the Conestoga wagon. I think you're ascribing more to my motives than I intended. I saw it on someone's LJ and thought "yeah, there are times this describes me; there are times it describes just about every writer I know." If I'd been given a choice, I would've picked being a really good actress with a cute face that aged well, not necessarily a writer. But it's OK; it's (under)paid my bills for 15 years. *G*

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

I'm reacting to the rampaging negativity in that quote. Not your acknowledgment that we all have those mean reds.