Writing is hard, and dangerous. John Gardner sums it all up in one sentence (which incidentally made Esquire’s 2003 list of the 70 Greatest Sentences):
“This and nothing else is the desperately sought and tragically fragile writer’s process: in his imagination, he sees made-up people doing things–sees clearly–and in the act of wondering what they will do next, he sees what they will do next, and all this he writes down in the best, most accurate words he can find, understanding even as he writes that he may have to find better words later, and that a change in the words may mean a sharpening or deepening of the vision, the fictive dream or vision becoming more and more lucid, until reality, by comparison, seems cold, tedious, and dead.”
–John Gardner, “Do You Have What It Takes to Become a Novelist?” 1983
For this writer’s part, I’m making living well a priority, and leaving quality words to a distant second.
Hat Tip to Aaron for the Esquire list.
