To write is to write.

Avi — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 07:01:37 +0000

Over my years as a writer I’ve learned not to talk about the work when I am in the process of creating a story. The more I talk about the story, the less it is on paper, so to speak. When I talk about what I am writing, it seems to lock up the free flow of invention. It stifles intuition. It’s as if I become committed to the idea of the story, rather than to the story itself. The worst thing I can do is intellectually define the story. My job is to make the story come alive in my writing, not in my talking. To talk about the story implies that what I say is in the story. For example, if I say my story is about an intelligent person who makes a foolish decision, it doesn’t mean I have written that. I’ve only talked it. That’s why when someone asks me what I am writing, I duck away. Indeed, the more someone tells me what they are going to write, the more certain I am that it will never be written. To write is to write. The talk can come later.

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To write is to write.