“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” – Thomas Mann
Discuss!
11 thoughts on “Reader Friday: How Hard Is Writing For You?”
I think writing is hard for writers, because we’re the only idiots really trying to be good at it.
The hardest part, though, the one that stops most people cold, is starting to write — getting the first few words down, before the flow kicks in. That first gear is a grind.
So yeah, writing is hard…until it isn’t, until it’s fun. And boy, is it fun!
As Hemingway said (beware: paraphrase), “All writers have to do is stare at a blank piece of paper (computer screen) until their foreheads bleed.”
But how do we put a tourniquet on our heads? Persevere until the bleeding turns to joy and we fall in love with the current project. Then give it to an editor and bleed some more, until at last we have published something readers will love.
Just one note, Carol. it was Red Smith, the old sports writer, who said, “You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.” That’s such a good line that the writers of a TV movie about Hemingway gave it to him, and it has since become a meme!
The sentiment, though, is apt!
I wondered who actually said that! Thanks. For me, the hardest part is the discipline when I first start a book..the actual sitting down and getting started every morning. Like today. 🙂
I think the more you know, the harder it gets. So, yeah, writing is hard, but it’s also magical when the blood pours from our forehead. 😉
I find writing hard because I have the imagination for it… but struggle in dyslexia. Which can be extremely frustrating!
I do too. You have to work past it. I don’t bother with spell check until I’ve got time later on. But I know what you mean. Edits are painful.
I must be an outlier of some kind as I’ve never struggled, never had writer’s block. My biggest obstacle is always having only 24 hours per day in which to write all the things I want to write about. Heck, writing is probably the only actual talent I have for anything, so need to put it to use and keep it exercised.
In other words we aren’t all Mozarts! I’m more like Beethoven, myself–not deaf, but just struggling.
At the moment, the writing is coming good every other day, but I struggle with it.
I’m also astonished at how many people who are writers who diddle on facebook. I don’t have time for chatting or doing one of those things you get tagged for where you have to tag a bunch of people in turn, and that takes time. I’ve had to turn off a lot of my notifications and do a few other things so I don’t get bothered by this stuff.
Gotta go! Happy writing!
Hard indeed. Hard to land on an idea that glows in the dark, rather than idea that you have to pump all the life into. Hard not to write it “any damn way I please,” which is the battle cry of the new writer. Hard to assimilate all the things a real writer needs to understand to get it onto the page in a form that aligns with the way readers expect to experience stories.
And… hard to stop once you start doing it.
I write because it’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever done, besides becoming a parent. But I only had the energy to have two children. So maybe that’s harder. I’m going to keep at the writing thing until I know for sure there’s never any getting it exactly right.
“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” – Thomas Mann
I think writing is hard for writers, because we’re the only idiots really trying to be good at it.
The hardest part, though, the one that stops most people cold, is starting to write — getting the first few words down, before the flow kicks in. That first gear is a grind.
So yeah, writing is hard…until it isn’t, until it’s fun. And boy, is it fun!
As Hemingway said (beware: paraphrase), “All writers have to do is stare at a blank piece of paper (computer screen) until their foreheads bleed.”
But how do we put a tourniquet on our heads? Persevere until the bleeding turns to joy and we fall in love with the current project. Then give it to an editor and bleed some more, until at last we have published something readers will love.
Just one note, Carol. it was Red Smith, the old sports writer, who said, “You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.” That’s such a good line that the writers of a TV movie about Hemingway gave it to him, and it has since become a meme!
The sentiment, though, is apt!
I wondered who actually said that! Thanks. For me, the hardest part is the discipline when I first start a book..the actual sitting down and getting started every morning. Like today. 🙂
I think the more you know, the harder it gets. So, yeah, writing is hard, but it’s also magical when the blood pours from our forehead. 😉
I find writing hard because I have the imagination for it… but struggle in dyslexia. Which can be extremely frustrating!
I do too. You have to work past it. I don’t bother with spell check until I’ve got time later on. But I know what you mean. Edits are painful.
I must be an outlier of some kind as I’ve never struggled, never had writer’s block. My biggest obstacle is always having only 24 hours per day in which to write all the things I want to write about. Heck, writing is probably the only actual talent I have for anything, so need to put it to use and keep it exercised.
In other words we aren’t all Mozarts! I’m more like Beethoven, myself–not deaf, but just struggling.
At the moment, the writing is coming good every other day, but I struggle with it.
I’m also astonished at how many people who are writers who diddle on facebook. I don’t have time for chatting or doing one of those things you get tagged for where you have to tag a bunch of people in turn, and that takes time. I’ve had to turn off a lot of my notifications and do a few other things so I don’t get bothered by this stuff.
Gotta go! Happy writing!
Hard indeed. Hard to land on an idea that glows in the dark, rather than idea that you have to pump all the life into. Hard not to write it “any damn way I please,” which is the battle cry of the new writer. Hard to assimilate all the things a real writer needs to understand to get it onto the page in a form that aligns with the way readers expect to experience stories.
And… hard to stop once you start doing it.
I write because it’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever done, besides becoming a parent. But I only had the energy to have two children. So maybe that’s harder. I’m going to keep at the writing thing until I know for sure there’s never any getting it exactly right.