Feeling Like a Million Dollars
I read this passage today, taken from Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. Enjoy.
People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her. (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said you can safely assume you’ve created God it your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.)







Lady Glamis
7 Feb 10 at 3:16 pm
Hah! I’d like to know which one is the one we all hate. This is so true. Nobody writes perfectly the first time.
wulf
7 Feb 10 at 3:48 pm
“Muriel Spark is said to have felt that she was taking dictation from God every morning–sitting there, one supposes, plugged into a Dictaphone, typing away, humming. One might hope for bad things to rain down on a person like this.” (Anne Lamott)
Lady Glamis
7 Feb 10 at 4:04 pm
Thanks, Wulf. I agree with Anne. That’s a little ridiculous of someone to be able to do that. But whatever, I suppose.