If you clicked on this blog to find a discussion about love and sex, you will be disappointed.
Today, I am thinking about writer vs. manuscript, author vs. book. Do I define myself with the process or the product? This is a romance question. Am I a writer because of the romance of being a writer, or am I writing stories I want to tell? It makes a difference.
Ernest Hemingway didn’t say, “Write drunk, edit sober,” but there may be something to the line. Are you all about mood? Do you need a setting, a playlist, or a view to write? Is your craft more about the “writing feeling” than it is about the tale you are telling?
When I began writing, I was a mood guy. I started long ago with a cheap blue portable typewriter. I liked going into a tiny room in our little house, rolling a fresh sheet in the machine, and tapping away. I was working 60 hours a week, and my exhaustion may have added to the charm. It seemed very writerly. I didn’t smoke, but perhaps squinting as smoke curled up my cheek would have added to the feeling. I very much doubt a tumbler full of vodka would have hurried the process. Looking back, I cannot figure out how any of this would have helped the book I was writing.
Thinking of my typewriter days, I don’t recall much editing. Not the in-depth revision that word processing allows. My mother wrote on a Selectric. She wrote paragraphs over and over. She Xed out the ones she didn’t want, sometimes leaving only a few lines on a page. I can still hear the typewriter rattling as she held down the X. I believe she used that time to think. It worked for her, but I don’t remember doing that.
Writing for me is 10% writing and 90% revision/editing. That ratio killed the “romance” of the moment when writing. It is hard for me to be very interested in the “mood of the moment” when I struggle with a scene that isn’t working or fumble for a better word. There is no room in my mind for music, scenery, or any distraction. I find I must give 100% to that last 90%
Does this mean I have lost the love of writing? Absolutely not! I find it very writerly and “romantic” to get up bleary-eyed from a fruitful revision session. When I get a piece right, I feel like an author with elbow patches.
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