'Ha! Call yourself a writer. You don't even write anything. Writers write, that's how they get their name. Get it?'
At this point the horrid creature turns its back in a huff. Sometimes it's worse than that; it looks over my shoulder as I begin to type and howls with laughter or pokes me with a bony finger as I try to set a new high score on Bejewelled Blitz.
I am a patient woman, but enough is enough. Yesterday, I picked up the horrid beast, its skinny arms and legs dangling, and gave it the boot. I kicked it good and hard, sending it sailing over the Lancastrian roof tops. It landed somewhere in the shifting sands of Morecambe Bay. I hope it comes to a nasty end.
That was yesterday and then, this morning, what happens? I wake up wanting to write. Just a few hundred words of a story that's been swirling round my head for a few months now. I didn't write much, but that's absolutely fine.
There is no getting round the fact that writers write.
ReplyDeleteYou find all sorts on creative writing courses. There are those who don't enjoy writing, and don't particularly like reading, but who are besotted with the idea of being a writer. There are those who go on about how difficult they find writing, particularly in certain genres. There are those who claim to enjoy writing but who despise every word they have ever written, like an anorexic complaining, at five stone, about how disgustingly fat she is.
The best writers, in my opinion, share several qualities with the best U-boat commanders. Decisiveness. Coolness under fire. Willingness to take responsibility. And the ability to do a stereotyped German accent.
Hmmm, I'm not sure which type I am, but at least I do have one of the qualities you describe.
ReplyDelete