Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Serendipity

I’ve just finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

OH.MY.GOD. The book is amazing. It’s brilliant and terrifying. Actually it’s turned into one of those ‘why am I trying to do this when there are writers out there doing THIS?’

It’s not remotely a book I would’ve picked up myself, but Julia Bell recommended it to me when I was in the UK. (I think we were talking about ‘truth’ in writing and this was an example.) She’d done a lecture on it recently and she said she’d thought about putting some notes up on her website about it.

So I went to have a look at her website (here) to see if I could find some more about the book. I couldn’t find any notes but I found this from her article ‘Dressing to Thrill’:

‘Sometimes I fear that some writers want to get published more than they want to write. Being a successful writer is a long apprenticeship. Writing a novel is a slow, frustrating process. It takes time and patience to get it right.’

And then I saw Jon’s post from yesterday, which is relevant too.

I remembered that for me it's never been about the publishing, but about the writing - the process - the thinking. That's why I started. Yes, my standards are high and so be it.

6 comments:

Yvonne said...

I've heard great things about that book!

A great quote, so true.

Sue Guiney said...

I said it to Jon and I'll say it to you: Hear! Hear! Well said/written (although I think on his post I spelled it -- here here -- hmmm). But really, if you don't write, you can't get published. The horse has to come before the cart, and if the whole thing isn't led by your heart, than it's useless.

Jen said...

You have to love writing for its own sake, not with the end publishing goal in sight. I like having money but going to work is a chore; a means to an end and we could never write properly if we felt like that.

Off to Amazon now...

Angie said...

What a great quote. It's a good reminder. Sometimes in the struggle of writing, you forget why you do it. Will have to add that book to my list!
I found Julia's article helpful and interesting. It actually gave me an idea for strengthening my story. Huzzah!

Angie said...

What a great quote. It's a good reminder. Sometimes in the struggle of writing, you forget why you do it. Will have to add that book to my list!
I found Julia's article helpful and interesting. It actually gave me an idea for strengthening my story. Huzzah!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

What good points they make about writing, so true.