I'll start by commenting on how strange I feel writing a blog that I know will be graded eventually, especially as I haven't blogged before, I do hope there's not a knack to it! But onto more pressing matters...
Today's seminar was interesting in the way it was kind of looking down the barrel of a gun. We were put on the spot and made to write why we want to be writers, and I'd like to think I wasn't the only one that hesitated a little. As someone that spends quite a lot of time writing, I often don't think about the exact reason why I do it. Of course, being published would be the pinnacle success, but doesn't every writer hope for that? I suppose that for every writer there are two kinds of reasons why they write, but generally speaking, I think the personal reasons outweigh the financial.
Something else that struck me about the lesson today was learning about John Cheever, and how he left his education in order to pursue his writing career. The act in itself was remarkable, but the courage needed to actually go through with it astounds me. How could he be sure his writing was good enough? I admire Cheever’s confidence in himself to take the steps he did, and I wouldn’t be able to say I could have done the same. I always second guess my own work, to the point where it halts my creative process. Hopefully this won’t always be the case.
I think most writers write for a personal reason even if they say they write for money, its interesting to note that once they have money they still continue to write. Like the Cheever guy you mention, he started to write to earn money and even when he became a sucess and could probably live off the royalties he still continued to write :) my advice Tomlin is to just go on ahead with it, finish that novel of yours and enjoy the labour intensive task of editing :s
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting debate; write for money or for... love, for want of a better expression? No one really wants to 'need' to do something, surely? Unless they can be guaranteed an outlet, the frustration of denial may well stifle the creative process rendering the entire cycle fruitless and hopeless. It's interesting what you say about Cheever. It's possible that the end of his relationship with formal education was a more mutually beneficial one - although he felt the absence of formal qualifications deeply when first looking for work. Like any other aspiring writer, he needed to eat whilst waiting for the phone to ring! And I'm not sure the financial motivation ewver left him. He had a family to support after all. Don't think of your criticality of your own work as 'second guessing', think of it as a sign of a good editor/proof reader - a useful instinct for a writer to have!
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