It's filled with nuggets of wisdom from writer Ann Patchett, author of novels (and winner of the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award) whose work has been published in New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post and Oprah magazine. Try on:
"It turns out the distance from head to hand....is achieved through regular, disciplined practice."
She goes on to say: "Why is it that we understand that playing the cello will require work but we relegate writing to the magic of inspiration?"
Amen, Ann! For years, people have asked how I can write "so easily." It's not easy, as I'm in a constant state of edit, but for me, attempting writing and putting words on paper is as natural as breathing. Why? Because I've done it practically every day of my life...from the time I could first put crayon to paper and wrote "books" and "newspapers" that I would sell to my neighbors (Mrs. Polly, I'm apologizing right now.) Then came college, where I studied journalism, and had to crank out copy regularly, with a professor throwing things at us, because he said that's how newsrooms really were (for the record, I never actually got injured by the crumpled up papers). Then I had internships where I had to write 30 second promos, which tested me to think and write clearly. And when I went into a press office for my first real job after college, I wrote every day. Press releases, speeches, question and answers for executives, newsletter stories, memos to employees, scripts, articles for trades: that was my life for 10 years. And at night? I reported and wrote my own copy for the stories I delivered on-air for Arlington Weekly News. And when I left full-time and part-time paid writing behind in favor of all-the-time motherhood, I still wrote. Whether it was a journal or a letter to the editor, I kept writing...whether a baby on my lap or interviewing a family for an article while I was 9 months pregnant (the grandmother kept telling me to "oh, please sit, honey.") Years later, with kids in school and my own office, I'm a fulltime freelance writer now, of articles and essays.
But that doesn't mean it's easy, it's just not waiting on "inspiration." Oh yes, some days I'm clearly more inspired than others. Some days the words flow. Some days I write better than others. But some days? It's as ugly as my son's middle school math problems. I write, but I don't want anyone to see it. And when it seems the story's boring and I don't have the gist right, it is then I put it away for the day.
Chalking it up to a random muse that will appear-- if you're lucky-- once a year isn't going to help you. Every day, spend 30 minutes writing. No one has to see it. Whether it's a journal or a card to a friend or a blog post, just empty your mind's contents.
That doesn't mean Hallelujah Chorus will sound and you'll suddenly be phenomenal. There are times when I want to wring the neck of a story I'm working on. And fiction? For me, that's the hardest, because I have so very little practice and education on the art of writing fiction. And I rarely work on fiction, so what's in my mind doesn't always translate to the page.
"Only a few of us are going to be willing to break our own hearts by trading in the living beauty of imagination for the stark disappointment of words. This is why we type a line or two and then hit the delete button or crumple up the page. Certainly that was not what I meant to say!" Patchett writes.
With a sense of humor, she talks of the day someone said to her: "Everyone has one great novel in them." Stunned, she responded: "Does everyone have one great floral arrangement in them? ...one algeabraic proof?"
Good writing, my friends, is simply practice and work.
I look forward to reading more of this memoir! What are you reading or writing right now?
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