"What you write is you. And you are what you write. How you became this person is part of the writing. And the reading."
Does it seem like I spend a lot of time writing about writing? Sometimes it seems that way to me; in fact, I worry about putting too much energy into that at the expense of my writing. I'm always telling people that the most important thing you can do is do. Or in other words if you're a writer, write, a singer, sing, or a painter, paint.
Okay, technically speaking when I write about writing, I'm writing so that means I'm writing, but is it writing? Did you even follow that sentence let alone the tortured line of reasoning behind it?
Look at it this way; there is professional baseball and sandlot baseball. It's the same game, but the skill set in one is substantially different than in the other. If someone like Alex Rodriguez were playing a game of sandlot instead of for the New York Yankees would he consider himself to be playing the same quality of baseball as if he were playing for his professional team?
Probably not. In fact, I would hope that he wouldn't bring his "A" game to a pickup game with some buddies, because that would be rude. But at the same time, he wouldn't be able to turn off his natural talents and the skills that he's taken years to develop. He just wouldn't be playing at the same level or with same intensity that he would under normal circumstances.
Unlike Alex, I can't seem to be able to do that. When I'm writing, I'm writing. Each time out, I do my level best to make it the best thing I've ever written. The only time I seem to relax, to some extent, is writing personal letters, and even those can get pretty intense at times.
But I still feel there's writing and then there's writing. The distinction only exists in my head and has nothing to do with quality. I don't differentiate while I'm working; it's only after the fact that I will categorize something. The articles I write for the Internet, even though they can range in diversity from novel reviews to analysis of the writing process, are lumped together in one area, while my book project is considered something else altogether.
Article comments
1 - Mark Schannon
Ah, you're trapped in the writer's dilemma, alright. It's the only circular logic I've found that's indisputably true.
You don't talk much about the power of the unconscious and its influence on the process. I have developed almost complete faith in my unconscious to take the lead role in my writing.
The novel I just finished began with a bizarre image and took me into realms I never imagined writing about--religion, teenagers, coming of age issues, family relations--all stuff I usually find boring as hell, but obviously my unconscious wanted to explore those issues.
I gave it free reign & love the result. Of course, I've edited and edited until my eyeballs fell out, but my conscious mind would never have found its way alone.
Keep on truckin'
In Jamesons Veritas
2 - Elvira Black
Richard:
All I can do is nod in agreement. Nonfiction to me is just as valid a form as fiction. Tom Wolfe, just to cite one example, is as "literary" to me as Virginia Woolf. Both forms can be rendered in an equally exemplary and creative way.
3 - Mark Saleski
i totally agree. but of course, i would...since i don't write any fiction.