From Jonathan Yardley’s Washington Post article about John Gregory Dunne comes this quote:
“Because one has written other books does not mean the next becomes any easier. Each book in fact is a tabula rasa; from book to book I seem to forget how to get characters in and out of rooms — a far more difficult task than the non-writer might think. Still I went to my office every day. That is the difference between the professional and the amateur. The professional guts a book through this period, in full knowledge that what he is doing is not very good. Not to work is to exhibit a failure of nerve, and a failure of nerve is the best definition I know for writer’s block.”
How wise! How true! And how apposite to my current situation! (MorM 3 is due in New York City in just under twelve hours.) Via the lovely Ms Bond.
Margo Lanagan‘s Black Juice is now a Printz honour book. Most excellent! If you haven’t already read it, then you really really must!
Now I return to twelve more hours of not exhibiting a failure of nerve . . . Fingernails? What fingernails?
Good luck. You see? Sometimes I don’t mock you.
I love that quote. I once watched a documentary on the great choreographer Bob Fosse. At one point he said that every time he would start a new project, he would stare at the dancers and think, “How the hell do I do this? How do I get a dancer across the stage?” Even after winning a Tony, Oscar, and Emmy.
go justine!!!!
Thanks, guys! It’s been quite the odyssey!
Sara Z: Yup, it’s a hell of a quote and so very spot on. Very close to Raymond Chandler’s words of wisdom. It endlessly amazes me how hard the most basic aspects of writing are. Blowing up whole worlds? Dead easy. Getting people in and out of chairs? Really, really hard. Huh? It’s very comforting that it isn’t just us writers, but choreographers, too! Phew!
Applies to academic writing too, I think. If you wait until you feel like writing your diss you will never, ever do it. Just suck it up, go to the library, and write. Or so I tell myself.
Veronica: I think academic writing is even harder. There’s always footnotes that needed to be checked and double checked. One more source you could chase down. There’s always a work-related reason to put off the writing . . .