"Another thought that helps a writer as he works along -- let him write his novel 'the way he'd like to see a novel written'. This helps a great deal freeing you from the fetters of self-doubt and the kind of self-mistrust that leads to over-revision, too much calculation, preoccupation with 'what others would think.' Look at your own work and say, 'This is a novel after my own heart!' Because that's what it is anyway, and that's the point -- it's worry that must be eliminated for the sake of individual force. In spite of all this insouciant advice, I myself advanced slowly today, but not poorly, working on the final draft of the chapter. I'm a little rusty. Oh and what a whole lot of bunk I could write this morning about my fear that I can't write, I'm ignorant and worst of all, I'm an idiot trying to achieve something I can't possibly do. It's in the will, in the heart! To hell with these rotten doubts. I defy them and spit on them. Merde!"
Misery, meet company.
And thanks to Manuel, who is working on a book he expects to finish at the end of this month.
Off now to work on mine. 'Cause did you know? I'm writing a novel.
* From Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947 - 1954
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3 comments:
Thanks for the post!
I encourage you to KEEP GOING! Jack's advice is right on. I wish I had seen it while I was struggling through my book.
Maybe you'd enjoy my blog at www.thedailybeatblog.blogspot.com.
Think of it this way: Writer's write. They read and they write. If you're not reading or editing, you're writing. Breathing is involuntary.
Don't remember who told me that, but I tickle keys daily (poetry, a book, corp comm). It never stops if you don't let it.
Keep writing.
Rick, congratulations on the book! And I mean all aspects; not only the publication, but everything that went into it.
Tom, I hear this writer's refrain almost daily in my MFA program, particularly in novel workshop; writers write, and they read, and they write.
Writing is my engine. I won't stop writing.
Thanks for the good thoughts,
E.
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