There was this hilarious essay in The New York Times titled “The Accidental Writer.”
“Perhaps I started writing stories because that was the first dramatic thing that happened to me. I was hit on the head with a rock! They had to move the birthday cake so it wouldn’t get bloody! It became, in my mind, “The Day of the Rock.” The process of giving the day a narrative transformed the experience. Telling a story about it gave it a shape, a structure. I was the protagonist; the boy who threw the rock was the antagonist; what happened next was a narrative arc.”
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Then this gem at Tayari Jones’s blog, a quote from this Ellen Gilchrist book which I, of course, ordered immediately.
“… the first thing a writer must do is love the reader and wish the reader well. The writer must trust the reader to be at least as intelligent as he is. Only in such well wishing and trust, only when the writer feels he is writing a letter to a good friend, only then will the magic happen.”
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And finally, this from Jennifer Egan at Salon.com, which is what I often imagine when someone — anyone — tells me they’re going to write a book. Including me!
“Anticipation trumps reality. This is an interesting moment to consider why I write, because I’m not writing now. When I’m where I am now, and I haven’t yet started the next book, boy, is that next book going to be great! It’s lots easier to think that than when you’re actually writing it. Fantasy provides its own satisfactions.”
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Here’s to fantasy and drama and magic. And, of course, Carly.
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