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October 19, 2006
The Secret to Writing
I gave a reading on Monday night at the University of Washington Bookstore at Mill Creek (thank you, Jessica Terez, for taking such good care of me!). At the end of the reading, a very earnest woman raised her hand and asked me the key to writing, to making art.
I knew she thought I had THE answer, that I'd found the secret somehow. And I have.
It's called "bum glue." (The phrase is stolen unabashedly from Stephen King). Definition: put your bum in your writing chair and stick.
You have to stick when the weather is warm and there are weeds in the garden calling your name. You have to stick when it's rainy and cold and you want to curl up with hot cocoa and a good book. You have to stick when you're upset because yet another celebrity book has just launched. You have to stick when you don't feel good and really need some cinnamon toast and TLC.
Most of all you have to stick when what you're writing is really bad. Because most of it will be, especially in the first drafts. You grit your teeth, hold your nose, even close your eyes -- you do what ever you need to do to fill the page with words.
Without bum glue, you will be the person who has always wanted to write (or paint or draw or throw pots; you fill in the blank). A liberal dose of bum glue enables you to be the person who completes a rough draft, then another, and another until you have something that has heart and polish and life.
My dentist shows up in his white coat every day. My friendly barristas are there steaming milk. Norma Jean, my postal delivery person, faithfully chugs up the hill to fill our box with mail. I'm sure there are days when it doesn't seem fun to drill or steam or chug. But they do it.
Even if you have another job (which you do if you're a writer. James Michener said, "In America, one can make a fortune writing, but not a living."), you need to treat writing as your second job. One with a mean boss who makes you work even when you don't feel like it.
It's like a trick I learned at Weight Watchers -- wait at least ten minutes before you take seconds and you find you weren't as hungry as you thought. With writing, it's the opposite -- stay glued to that chair just ten minutes more.
And you won't be the person who wishes she'd written. You'll be busy dusting off your shelves making room for your latest book.
Posted by kirby at October 19, 2006 04:27 PM
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