On Writing
What keeps writers writing when the majority cannot depend on their
craft for financial support? Aside from his non-fiction collection of
essays, how many novels has Jonathan Franzen written since his
meteoric rise to stardom for The Corrections, for which he
deservedly received the 2001 National Book Award?
With hundreds of thousands of writers vying for space in cyberspace,
struggling to get a foot in the door of an agent, or heaven forbid a
publisher, isn’t it remarkable that, with the exception of a few hardy
stragglers, the same handful of authors appears on the New York
Times Best Seller list month after month? One of my favorite writers
of contemporary thrillers, Ken Follett, produces a quality novel once
every three or four years. It’s taking him considerably longer to research
and write the sequel to his historical fiction masterwork, Pillars of The
Earth.
Clearly, the publishing world has become mega
corporate moneymaking where, in the words of one of its mega CEOs,
you “publish or perish.” There is only one reason to write a book today:
for PROFIT through the cookie-cutter culture of American consumerism.
So what’s a writer to do? A few years ago I watched an interview
with the late Anthony Quinn. When asked why he became an actor he
replied, “I didn’t know what else to do. In fact I didn’t even know how to
act. But I studied pros like Lawrence Olivier, I worked hard and I was a
lucky s-b.”
No doubt luck plays a role in everyone’s life. But
there
is no such thing as good luck or bad luck. Luck is destiny. Sometimes
we think that the absolute worst has just happened to us, like
being left at the altar, only to find out later that it was the best thing that
could have ever happened. What’s my point? Although you may not be
a fan of the following author (you either love him or hate him), he is one
of the most prolific and successful writers in America today. And he did it
the hard way. Here are a few of his quotes.
• “When
asked, ‘how do you write?’ I invariably answer, ‘one word at a time.’”
• “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates
the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”
• “No, it’s not a very good story. Its author was too
busy
listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one
coming from inside.”
If you’re clueless as to whose pearls of
wisdom these are, I suggest you read his book, On Writing. In
addition to William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White’s Elements of
Style, which we must own and read again and again, Stephen
King’s On Writing is the one of the most straightforward and
enjoyable lessons in how to write plain, compelling prose. Your eyes
won’t glaze over. You will celebrate being a reader and writer. You will
enjoy the effort you make to get better, and you will never give up
because there is nothing you would rather do with your life.
Susan Scharfman is a freelance writer/editor at
http://www.susanscharfman.com.
