| A new client made an off-handed comment | | | | know that language cannot begin to convey |
| today. She wondered why almost every writer | | | | accurately the words in our hearts, minds and |
| gets strong urges not to write. "Suddenly, the | | | | spirits. Like the Inuit who allegedly have hundreds |
| plants need watering, the dog needs petting, the | | | | of words to describe snow, or the ancient Greeks |
| laundry needs folding at that very moment." She | | | | who had six words for love, we are immediately |
| laughed sheepishly. "I find in the moments that fall | | | | restrained by our limited language skills. The first |
| into my lap and announce they could be used for | | | | words we type will instantly disappoint us, |
| writing, I am suddenly possessed by an irresistible | | | | because they cannot perfectly convey straight |
| urge desire to clean closets, skim the internet for | | | | into the heart and mind of another the precise |
| some obscure fact, or finally finish reading that | | | | message we wish to send. |
| book I started last month. It's worse than craving | | | | And this is utter failure. And complete success. It |
| chocolate, and just as narcotic!" | | | | is failure in all the obvious ways, but the way it is |
| Writers have it tough. The very thing we most | | | | success is valuable to consider. For in our failure to |
| want to do, we don't do. My ex-husband, who | | | | direct our message perfectly, we leave it flayed |
| was a journalist at the time, dragged home a | | | | open, exposed to any reader's interpretation. Each |
| snippet of a quote. "No one likes writing, but | | | | reader sees in the work precisely what he or she |
| everyone likes having written." I am not sure to | | | | needs to take from it. They get what they |
| whom attribution belongs, but I'd wager it's a | | | | wanted to get, nothing more or less. The critic |
| professional writer. I am disinclined to write unless | | | | who dices a book gets another paycheck next |
| there's a deadline looming. Perhaps this is why so | | | | month for being pithy and curt. The reader who |
| few authors actually get published. Finishing a | | | | skims only the first few chapters and carries |
| proposal or the first draft of a fiction work is | | | | away a wholly different message from that |
| usually a self-imposed deadline. | | | | intended needs that skewed message to verify |
| I used to think it was the fear of criticism or | | | | his or her own opinion, pro or con. If fifty people |
| rejection that kept most writers from writing. But | | | | read our work, there will be fifty interpretations |
| now having been a writer all my life, and working | | | | of the same work. |
| with thousands of them as an agent, I think that | | | | We should have learned this in college English |
| is just the tip of the, well, the tip of the pool cue, | | | | classes, for therein is the beauty of the craft and |
| to avoid a cliché. My dad, an old pool shark | | | | the release from the "Writer's Procrastination" |
| legendary only in his own mind, remembers people | | | | malaise. Each person sees something different in |
| who were nervous about taking the shot who | | | | the book, even the author upon rereading it later. |
| endlessly chalked their cue stick. It's the same | | | | We are perfectly met by words, because the |
| with us, isn't it? We fuss and distract and whine | | | | words mean something different to each of us. |
| that we don't have time or the right | | | | Themselves, they are merely symbols for |
| circumstances to write. As for me, if I'm not | | | | meanings, and meanings are wholly subjective. In |
| alone in a cabin in Big Bear with a plate of warm | | | | California, the yellow stoplight means "hurry up!" In |
| chocolate chip cookies (or in a pinch, oatmeal | | | | Chicago, it means, "slow down!" The words we |
| raisin), in front of the fieldstone fireplace with | | | | see come to us in their own stark beauty, they |
| snow falling outside, in my favorite faux leopard | | | | adhere to our own vision of what we want and |
| skin slippers, how could I possibly be expected to | | | | need from the text we are consuming. |
| turn out prose of any value? Quite simply, I | | | | When you next set fingertips to keyboard, or quill |
| cannot write unless conditions are perfect. That's | | | | to parchment, remember that your efforts to |
| what I tell myself. That's what my writers tell me. | | | | convey a distinct message are only and sublimely |
| The question in my mind is always "Why don't | | | | your efforts. A whole world of possible |
| writers just force themselves to do it?" I gave a | | | | interpretations exists behind each phrase you turn, |
| seminar some years ago, when I was | | | | each word picture you sketch. Resolve to allow all |
| naïve. I taught a class to eight professional | | | | who choose to indulge in your writing take what |
| speakers. I charged exorbitant rates to force | | | | they prefer, like a bountiful banquet table. Then |
| them through a proposal creation process in just | | | | you are liberated to write what is true and has |
| three days. They were limp when we finished. I | | | | meaning for you, what is real, in the best |
| sent them home edited and complete, with only | | | | language you are capable of using. With clarity, |
| one sample chapter to finish. Six of them had had | | | | logic and precision, you are freed to let the words |
| sample chapters coming into the event - we'd | | | | flow onto the page. Those who take them up will |
| edited them on site. All they had to do was | | | | see your work only from their own myopia. Your |
| incorporate those edits! Five years later, I have | | | | job is complete when the words have been spent |
| yet to get a completed proposal from any of | | | | and they lie there, self-satisfied and heaving on |
| them. What's worse is that I happen to know | | | | the page. |
| that no other agent or publisher has seen their | | | | (c) 2007, Keller Media, Inc. Want to use this article |
| work either in all this time! | | | | in your publication? Reprints welcome so long as |
| Upon deep introspection and a cup of peppermint | | | | the article and by-line are reprinted intact and all |
| tea, I have determined once and for all that the | | | | links made live. |
| reason writers don't write is because we simply | | | | |