There’s Writing and There’s WRITING

Gertrude Stein is famous for her line, “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” It’s a good line. I’ve always liked it because to me it embodies the eternal beauty and “rose-ness” of roses. If you are a lover of roses, you understand it immediately. If not, it may seem absurd.

The same cannot be said of writing in my opinion. As someone who once taught others how to get their hand moving and get those words on the page, I have an understanding of how hard that can be. What I used to tell my students was, “First get it down, then make it pretty.” The second part of that sentence is a whole lot more demanding than the first.

I have a love/hate relationship with the whole New Age culture. On the one hand I like the acceptance, opening to new ideas, non-judgement, faith-infused quality of New Age thought. But where that way of thinking breaks down is in instilling a sense of responsibility and commitment to quality in its followers. That is not to say that there are not many New Age folks who aren’t responsible and committed to quality - there are. But I suspect they were that way to begin with.

As a writer who believes that writing is a sacrament - a joining with the Divine to Create - I have a lot of problems with people who think getting the words down on the page is the same as being a writer. In a sense, I suppose if you write then, yes, you are a writer but a serious writer never forgets the demands of craft.

Stephen King titled his wonderful autobiography/writing book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. In King’s case this is particularly clever because of the allusion to what Wiccan’s call “The Craft”, so appropriate for the sorts of books King writes. King is a fascinating writer. Because his books are so creepy and sensational it is easy to overlook the fact that he is an amazing craftsman as a writer - no less amazing for the fact that he makes it look so easy. But he is a craftsman of the highest order who has honed his skills over thousands and thousands of written pages.

That’s where the difference lies - in re-writing, editing, polishing, tearing up, crossing out, screaming, throwing things away, starting over, going through the waste can and digging pages back out. That’s where the craft is, in taking pride in every line, in not wanting to show it to the world until it is beginning to work. Writers who spill their guts onto the page have found a great place to start but that’s where they need a sense of responsibility and commitment to their writing. It is in that sense of responsibility and commitment that a writer becomes a Writer.

Someone said to me, “You write from your head, that’s the difference between us - I write from my heart.” I won’t quibble with her assessment of where my writing comes from. I’ll leave that to my readers. But what I wanted to say to her is just because you have written something from your heart doesn’t mean you can’t make it better. Writing from one’s heart is no excuse for ignoring craft, for leaving those poor little words that you have birthed there on the page, naked and un-nurtured. If you want to keep your writing in your journal and to yourself that is fine and a good practice. Most writers have thousands of pages they will never show to the world. But if you plan to bring those babies out into the world then polish them up, apply the craft, make them pretty.

I always encourage people to write - get it down and out of your head, or your heart. Writing is one of the best therapies in the world. That kind of writing is healing and is often the seed of great things. But respect your words. If you are a writer who aspires to what Harlan Ellison calls “holy” you owe it to yourself and your readers to respect the craft.

Thanks for reading.