Friday, June 16, 2006

Confession

This confession on Francesca Beard's blog made me smile:
Some writers love writing. Each morning is a positive hand-clapping, chest-soaring pleasure, their imagination a veritable magic box just waiting to be flung open - let's see what's inside! I hate those people.

I know what's inside my head. A few sordid but common-place misdeeds. Fear of change. Random bits of general and 'personal' information. I make things up, cobbled from stuff I notice in the vicinity and things I've stolen from others. I don't have writer's block. I'm just lazy and cowardly.

The truth for me is, writing is full of fear, fear of failure and fear of the unknown and fear that maybe, the world is crazy and senseless. But if you held a gun to my head, how my fingers would fly over the keys, tipppetty tappetty wooh!
Don't you just hate how someone can write about hating writing - so eloquently!

4 comments:

starlight said...

Oh, THANK GOD there's someone else like me out there!! I never quite understood how I could both love and hate writing . But Beard hit the nail on the head - it's the fear of failure. Which is why I've been putting off writing a story others have been asking about. I'm so afraid it won't be as wonderful on paper as it is in my mind.

Lydia Teh said...

Woohoo, great way to express the sentiment.

Yeah, Sharon, let's have a pity party on how hemmers and hawers "love to hate their art" and must tell everyone about it. Will drive the hand-clapping, chest-soaring writers crazy.

dreameridiot said...

writerly problem? I doubt she has one as a person whose prose relishes with words.

Anonymous said...

Ha, my sentiments are exactly like those of Beard's and Starlight's and perhaps every writer as well! It seems that hating and loving to write are part and parcel of the craft.

But, oh, how I hate writers who professed that they've never had writer's block. Boy, how I'd like to wring their brains with my hand and squeeze out every bit of creative juice and hang them out to dry. Just so they know what it feels like to devoid of things to write.

But that's probaby just my 'green-with-envy' side.