as small as a world and as large as alone, dduane: to-write-is-to-be: This is the most...

3:47pm June 10, 2014

dduane:

to-write-is-to-be:

This is the most truthful thing I have EVER read.

Yep. The work will become the filter between you and everything else that happens in your life: the lens that you see everything through.
And there is no way to shut the writing off. It will be the first thing you think of in the morning (well, you might think about peeing first, but you’ll be thinking about writing while using the toilet…) and the last thing you think about before you become unconscious at night. (And when you’re working hard, you will dream about handwriting or typing or dictating.) If you fly to Bermuda and lie on a beach with a tall cold drink in your hand, if you walk down sunny forest paths echoing with birdsong, if you climb bloody Everest and stand there with the world spread at your feet, the writing will be whispering in your ear all the time about what a great background this location will make for some damn story or other. If you go to a multi-starred Michelin restaurant and submerge yourself in fine foods and great wines and general gustatory bliss, the writing (with its all-seeing eye ever on the watch for great character business) will keep making you eavesdrop on the couple at the next table who’re dissecting their marriage under their breaths over dessert. The writing will even strongly urge you to stop in the middle of some fabulous shag and make notes about that particular piece of that one action sequence that’s been eluding you for weeks… because if you just keep going, you might forget. And you can always have that orgasm later!*
There is no time off. There is no respite. You will sometimes look wearily and longingly at normal people who can leave their jobs behind them and just have a goddamn weekend off. From such a delightful prospect, you have permanently excluded yourself.
I’m not saying there aren’t rewards. Of course there are. But do you really want this for yourself? Really? Think about it carefully, and choose wisely. Because once you choose, there’s no going back.
Thoth is a harsh taskmaster…
*For this reason it is smart to (if at all possible) shack up with / marry another writer, because at least they’ll understand. …Digital recorders also help.

Thoth, or Seshat? Seshat’s the one who invented writing…
But yes writing happens all the time whether it’s wanted or not.

to-write-is-to-be:

This is the most truthful thing I have EVER read.

Yep. The work will become the filter between you and everything else that happens in your life: the lens that you see everything through.

And there is no way to shut the writing off. It will be the first thing you think of in the morning (well, you might think about peeing first, but you’ll be thinking about writing while using the toilet…) and the last thing you think about before you become unconscious at night. (And when you’re working hard, you will dream about handwriting or typing or dictating.) If you fly to Bermuda and lie on a beach with a tall cold drink in your hand, if you walk down sunny forest paths echoing with birdsong, if you climb bloody Everest and stand there with the world spread at your feet, the writing will be whispering in your ear all the time about what a great background this location will make for some damn story or other. If you go to a multi-starred Michelin restaurant and submerge yourself in fine foods and great wines and general gustatory bliss, the writing (with its all-seeing eye ever on the watch for great character business) will keep making you eavesdrop on the couple at the next table who’re dissecting their marriage under their breaths over dessert. The writing will even strongly urge you to stop in the middle of some fabulous shag and make notes about that particular piece of that one action sequence that’s been eluding you for weeks… because if you just keep going, you might forget. And you can always have that orgasm later!*

There is no time off. There is no respite. You will sometimes look wearily and longingly at normal people who can leave their jobs behind them and just have a goddamn weekend off. From such a delightful prospect, you have permanently excluded yourself.

I’m not saying there aren’t rewards. Of course there are. But do you really want this for yourself? Really? Think about it carefully, and choose wisely. Because once you choose, there’s no going back.

Thoth is a harsh taskmaster…

*For this reason it is smart to (if at all possible) shack up with / marry another writer, because at least they’ll understand. …Digital recorders also help.