So you want to be a writer, eh?
And why not? It’s a great life. Let’s hear what some of those writers have had to say about it.
For those of us who are feeling undervalued, the problem was diagnosed as long ago as the 18th century:
“That unprosperous race [men of letters]… …their numbers are everywhere so great as commonly to reduce the price of their labour to a very paltry recompense”
Adam Smith, in his The Wealth of Nations.
There you have it: we’re in oversupply. Anyone volunteering to resign? I thought not. Mind you, from the way we write about ourselves you’d think we were dying to get out of this life.
“Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness” (Georges Simenon).
“Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead” (Gene Wilder).
To Wilder, and all others paralysed by writer’s block, James Thurber:
“Don’t get it right. Just get it written.”
To Simenon, we might respond:
“Writers are unequalled not so much in their suffering as in their ability to complain of it.”
(I made this one up – I think. If I didn’t, then it’s a case of unintentional plagiarism, which is a hazard of the profession.)
Writers seem to agree than insanity is an issue, but dispute whether writing is a cause or a cure.
“Many suffer from the incurable disease of writing, and it becomes chronic in their sick minds” (Juvenal).
“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia” (E L Doctorow).
On the other hand:
“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in a human condition” (Graham Greene).
“If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad” (Lord Byron).
We might have a clue to Lord Byron’s life there: part of the time he was mad and for the rest his mind was empty.
My thanks to the Thinkexist site for supplying many of these. I will close with my favourite, from the American journalist Bill Stout. I commend it to all writers everywhere:
“Whether or not you write well, write bravely.”
Welcome to the calling.