At Ward 6, J. Robert Lennon writes:
If you’re a writer, you like process. Occasionally I’ll meet a book enthusiast who has an idea for a book. “Now all I have to do is write it.” That person isn’t a writer–a writer is somebody who likes writing.
Right on! As long as “likes” does not exclude “and at times finds really, really difficult.” He goes on to say:
Ideas–those are a dime a dozen. You can find more ideas in one day’s morning paper than you can ever write in a lifetime.
Right on again! I tried to explain this to my (first) graduate thesis adviser, who was convinced of exactly the opposite. That ideas could be used up. That on the other side of an idea sat only emptiness. Sad, really. Ah, if only J. Robert Lennon had a little clone he could have sent to Pittsburgh once in a while, it would have saved me quite a bit of grief.
We all know what Dorothy Parker famously quipped when asked what’s the best thing about writing … having written.
I do like having written, but no less than I like writing. I like writing even when it makes me sad or depressed or ecstatic or feverish. I like writing even when it’s painful. There is nothing about writing I don’t like, but there are some aspects I like more than others: the fluid artistry of a good pen applying ink to receptive paper, revising work to make it sparkle, and of course, holding the book that ends the process of (often) years of writing everyday.
And yes, I also agree that ideas are everywhere every moment, and a writer’s elemental task is sorting them out into the valuable and the trivial.
The url for my web page has changed; clicking on the one above is a dead end. Sorry. I can’t figure out how to change it from my original registration. If you can change it, Pinky, here is the correct url:
http://web.mac.com/hdmerritt
Thank you.