« our sick countrymen | Main | our friends in Iraq »
July 15, 2007
the room
Writing is something you do alone in a room. Copy that sentence and put it on your wall because there's no way to exaggerate or overemphasize this fact. It's the most important thing to remember if you want to be a writer. Writing is something you do alone in a room.Before any issues of style, content or form can be addressed, the fundamental questions are: How long can you stay in that room? How many hours a day? How do you behave in that room? How often can you go back to it? How much fear (and, for that matter, how much elation) can you endure by yourself? How many years--how many years--can you remain alone in a room?
- Michael Ventura
To that I would add:
What did you do in the room today?
Did you run from the room or did hang in and face whatever it is that was locked up in there with you? (Keeping in mind that you brought whatever it was in with you.)
Did you walk out of the room or write out of it?
Me, I'm terrified of the room, kinda. I'm trying to scurry out of it even now by posting this, making you, gentle reader, my unwitting accomplice and enabler.
(Thanks, Kelley.)
Posted by ebogjonson in brain maintenance, on July 15, 2007 11:37 PM
subscribe to my feed