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Q: Do you ever get writer's block?
A: I disavow that term. There are times when you don't
know what you're doing or when you don't have access to
the language or the event. So if you're sensitive, you
can't do it. When I wrote "Beloved," I thought about it
for three years. I started writing the manuscript after
thinking about it, and getting to know the people and
getting over the fear of entering that arena, and it
took me three more years to write it. But those other
three years I was still at work, though I hadn't put a
word down.
http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitpri ... ison1.html
To record the world as it is. To set down the past before it is all forgotten.
To excavate the past because it has been forgotten. To satisfy my desire for
revenge. Because I knew I had to keep writing or else I would die. Because
to write is to take risks, and it is only by taking risks that we know we are
alive. To produce order out of chaos. To delight and instruct (not often
found after the early twentieth century, or not in that form). To please
myself. To express myself. To express myself beautifully. To create a
perfect work of art. To reward the virtuous and punish the guilty; or – the
Marquis de Sade defense, used by ironists – vice versa. To hold a mirror up
to Nature. To hold a mirror up to the reader. To paint a portrait of society
and its ills. To express the unexpressed life of the masses. To name the
hitherto unnamed. To defend the human spirit, and human integrity and
honor. To thumb my nose at Death. To make money so my children could
have shoes. To make money so I could sneer at those who formerly sneered
at me. To show the bastards. Because to create is human. Because to create
is Godlike. Because I hated the idea of having a job. To say a new word. To
make a new thing. To create a national consciousness, or a national
conscience. To justify my failures in school. To justify my own view of
myself and my life, because I couldn’t be ‘a writer’ unless I actually did
some writing. To make myself appear more interesting than I actually was.
To attract the love of a beautiful woman. To attract the love of any woman
at all. To attract the love of a beautiful man. To rectify the imperfections
of my miserable childhood. To thwart my parents. To spin a fascinating tale.
To amuse and please the reader. To amuse and please myself. To pass the
time, even though it would have passed anyway. Graphomania. Compulsive
logorrhea. Because I was driven to it by some force outside my control.
Because I was possessed. Because an angel dictated to me. Because I fell
into the embrace of the Muse. Because I got pregnant by the Muse and
needed to give birth to a book (an interesting piece of cross-dressing,
indulged in by male writers of the seventeenth century). Because I had
books instead of children (several twentieth-century women). To serve Art.
To serve the Collective Unconscious. To serve History. To justify the ways of
God toward man. To act out antisocial behavior for which I would have been
punished in real life. To master a craft so I could generate texts (a recent
entry). To subvert the Establishment. To demonstrate that whatever is, is
right. To experiment with new forms of perception. To create a recreational
boudoir so the reader could go into it and have fun (translated from a Czech
newspaper). Because the story took hold of me and wouldn’t let me go (the
Ancient Mariner defense). To search for understanding of the reader and
myself. To cope with my depression. For my children. To make a name that
would survive death. To defend a minority group or oppressed class. To
speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. To expose appalling
wrongs or atrocities. To record the times through which I have lived. To
bear witness to horrifying events that I have survived. To speak for the
dead. To celebrate life in all its complexity. To praise the universe. To
allow for the possibility of hope and redemption. To give back something of
what has been given to me.
@MitchAlbom:
Panicking about all u hav 2 do by tmrw? interesting take on procrastination + creativity via @adammgrant in @nytimes http://ow.ly/XbMwh
Hugh Manatee Wins » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:52 pm wrote:Seek moral relevancy.
The brain is a survival tool. That's what it is designed to do by figuring out patterns to enable the survival of the animal and the larger group as social animal.
What is it people don't know that can hurt them?
That's what I write about.
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