I’ve Got a Secret
Here’s something else—if no one says to you, “Oh Sam (or Amy)! This is wonderful!,” you are a lot less apt to slack off or to start concentrating on the wrong thing…being wonderful, for instance, instead of telling the goddam story.
Stephen King from On Writing
As it turns out, the secret of writing is writing in secret. In the past, I have always been pretty quick to share my lovelies with my wonderful spouse or some other worthy reader. Unfortunately, this is typically the death knell for my enthusiasm. Talking about it too much leads (for me at least) to not writing enough about it in the long run. Mr. King’s (”No, please, call me Stephen,” I imagine him saying. “Mr. King is my father.” And then we laugh and have a nice conversation about writing.) practical, useful and wonderful advice to write an entire draft “with the door closed,” so to speak, has been an electrifying charge. My story is mine. All mine. All the little characters. The big ones. The events. My big secret. Who knew it was that simple?
August 26th, 2005 at 9:21 am
You said it.
I used to run off with every finished paragraph and print and try to get feedback. Worse still, I used to “bounce ideas” off friends and family. There is no faster way to kill off a project.
Work in secret, or at least in private, like Jane Austen - putting the manuscript in your knitting bag when you hear the floorboard outside the drawing room door creak. She wrote Pride and Prejudice that way, after all.
Dammit, now I have to go read “A Room of One’s Own” for the millionth time.
BTW, I forgot to tell you when you posted your bookshelf picture that I, too, have an Eloise doll sitting on one of mine. Do you think we might be long-lost cousins or something?
August 26th, 2005 at 10:12 am
This explains the large paper bag with the frowny face scrawled across it that she’s been wearing over her head every morning. And here I thought she didn’t appreciate my early morning recreations of Swan Lake.
August 28th, 2005 at 9:30 am
Have you read _Breathing In, Breathing Out_ by Ralph Fletcher? I found it a wonderfully swell book about keeping and using a writer’s notebook. Just loved it. I read that when other classmates of mine were reading the Stephen King book (which you are making me want to read more and more!)