The writing curse.
Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 03:46PM
I read a post recently about writing, and it really made me think. First, it reminded me of my favorite quote about writers, which was told to me by Clark Morgan (a friend and killer copywriter) that goes like this: "writers are people for whom writing is hard." How true. If you don't really care about writing, it's easy. Who needs grammar, flow, metaphor? But if you are a writer, writing is hard. You feel compelled to stare at that blank page and it stares back at you and, well, sooner or later you have to pee or something, and that page, being paper or an LCD screen, just sits there and says, "Yeah, whatever, you go pee or something, I'll wait."
Then the post reminded me of the time I tried to walk away from writing, or at least songwriting. It was probably in 1989 or '90, and I was in a band with my friend Toby, and I just decided I didn't have the talent, so I quit the band and headed off into advertising. Was this the right decision? I'll never fully now, but what I do know is this: if you like to write, which means you like to write from the heart, you are about as able to walk away from writing as a mammal is from air; it's just not going to work out for very long.
I held out for nearly 15 years, sort of. Along the way, I dabbled in writing every now and then, attempting a song here and short story there, but I never committed to finishing anything, which was my out. Of course, I was also never entirely free of the writing curse, for it is a curse, and my accident was just the thing to weaken me, so that the writing demon could reassert his curse in my psyche. But I'm okay with it. In fact, I'm glad for it. Because for all the agony writing creates, doing without it is even more agonizing. For those 15 years I set writing aside, I thought about it constantly, but never acted. And as I wrote my ad headlines, I felt hollow and cheap; it was like sex without love, but it didn't even feel very good.
So demon though it may be, the desire to write is a part of who I am and I need to embrace it (and maybe kick it in the shin a few times).
Reader Comments (4)
Thomas Mann said: "A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people."
My favorite:
"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. " Robert A. Heinlein
Doh! I knew that about Thomas Mann... damn. Well, thanks for pointing it out. Love the Heinlin quote!
Thanks so much for the link, Jeff. It really helps to know that others feel the same. Also, I adore that Thomas Mann quote and think I need to frame it and put it over my bed.
"...like sex without love" is sort of how I felt about writing catalog and marketing copy for Time-Warner. All my instincts were wrong and it was ugly and fake. I guess for me it was more "like sex without passion."
Stephanie, you are DEFINITELY not alone. Everyone I know who writes finds it to be miserably necessary.