How We Treat Books

Recently a group of acquaintances confessed that they don’t ever, ever write in their books—not even text books! They were taught to respect books and it was nothing short of sacrilegious to deface a book. I said nothing, afraid they would discover my secret—that I write in books. They expressed such disdain for book graffiti that I would have probably copped to picking my nose before admitting I am a passage highlighter. 

Fortunately George Bernard Shaw came to my rescue:

As soon as I open [a book], I occupy the book, I stomp around in it. I underline passages, scribble in the margins, leave my mark. . . . I like to be able to hear myself responding to a book, answering it, agreeing and disagreeing in a manner I recognize as peculiarly my own.
— George Bernard Shaw

I was kidding about the nose...

Hopelessly Writing

It’s been a busy week, so this will be shorter than short. I read this wonderful quote that sums me up and I am passing it along: “You see, in my view, a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.” – Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

I am still writing...

Procrastination Redux

"The thing all writers do best is find ways to avoid writing." — Alan Dean Foster

I was getting behind on my personal deadline that I set for writing my book. This morning I got up early and was making huge progress. I took a coffee break, which for me means stopping long enough to make a cup and then bring it to my desk. I spilled coffee on my keyboard, and while cleaning it out I was horrified. My mind starting imaging the cesspool that was under the keys—a place where my fingers virtually live—and I just HAD to clean it. Between toothpicks, cotton swabs and alcohol, I freshened the thing up.

Then I remembered this quote I heard this week, something about how all writers feel the urge to procrastinate. The successful writers are the ones that write despite the urges. It was stated more eloquently than this, so then I spent a bunch of time trying to find the quote. After looking through the magazines I read recently, I did an Internet search. When I put “writing procrastination” in the search field, there were more than a million results, and as much as I wanted to find that quote, I could not justify further procrastination. After all, didn’t I get the point of the quote?

So, I decided to blog about it. If I am going to procrastinate, I might as well turn the experience into material…

Happy Labor Day

It is Labor Day weekend and I am laboring. Writing is not so hard, but sitting in the chair is. Apparently other writers thought that writing was difficult. Here are a few examples:

"Let's face it, writing is hell." - William Styron

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."
- Gene Fowler

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway

"Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness." - Thomas Carlyle

Since I don’t think writing is too awfully hard, it probably means I am a mediocre writer. That’s okay, I’d rather be an ordinary writer and still bask in the pleasure it brings me. If I ever get so good that I feel like I am hemorrhaging, go ahead and cauterize my brain.