I read this interview with author Jennifer Egan after I posted "what I've learned about writing a novel" yesterday. You know what? Jennifer Egan learned all those things a long, long time ago, plus a whole lot more because she's an incredible writer, and apparently very wise and humble. This is what she said about first starting out:
"I think I knew that I wasn’t really that good. I knew that when I
read books, I couldn’t actually imagine how people could write them. I
was not one of those people who thought, “I can do better than that.”
That’s probably one of the ways that you can divide people. Are they
motivated by the thought that they can do better, or are they motivated
by the thought that there is so much quality out there and, “How can I
ever do it?” For some reason, that motivates me. I respond well to
adversity."
Bottom line, writing is about doing the work. Great interview.
Via @brainpicker and The Days of Yore.
No comments:
Post a Comment