12.03.09
When are you a writer?
A client recently sent me this quotation from Junot Diaz:
“Because, in truth, I didn’t become a writer the first time I put pen to paper or when I finished my first book (easy) or my second one (hard). 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. Wasn’t until that night when I was faced with all those lousy pages that I realized, really realized, what it was exactly that I am.”
We writers - aspiring writers and veteran writers - often must check in with our great expectations. We expect our first manuscript to be instantly picked up by an agent, editor, or publisher. We expect to reach best-seller status instantly. We expect Larry King and Oprah to ring. Write. Write without expectation. Write because you must, because you cannot not write. Because it is your responsibility to listen to that great small voice within as much as it is your responsibility to lull your babe to sleep and change her diapers and soothe her back to sleep at 3:12 am.
Shall I list all the stories of the Herman Melvilles and Stephen Kings and Junot Diazes who persevered despite receiving little or no recognition for years? Or the stories of writers who never received recognition? Or the stories of writers who received early accolades in their writing career and of whom now most of us have never heard?
I get to the mat because I have to. I get to the page likewise.
You?