The Solitary Art

The great writers do it alone. It’s exhilarating. It’s frustrating. It’s fun. It’s maddening. Writing demands the best of our creativity. It makes us push ourselves to express ideas and emotions. Sometimes it’s things we can’t say out loud, but can pour onto the page. We can re-write it until we get it just right. Find the right word until it sounds good when we read it, both silently, and out loud. As much as writers love to immerse themselves in their work, all the great ones struggle. James Joyce said, “Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for the sins committed in a previous life. The English reading public explains the reason.”

Why do we do it? We want to tell stories. Whether we are writing fiction, non-fiction, opinion, or poetry, we are trying to express something about the human condition. We want people to know how we feel about something. What we think is right or wrong, good or bad, funny or sad, important, or enlightening. Any writer can make up their own long list of reasons why they do it. It’s what drives them to a feeling of satisfaction they can’t find anywhere else. Ray Bradbury, who wrote “The Martian Chronicles said, “In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why can I be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimistic behavior.”

The art of writing is the art of creation. In fiction, you make something from nothing. Even non-fiction forces you to research the facts and pull them together in your unique way. The great spy novelist John le Carre said, “Writing is like walking in a deserted street. Out of the dust in the street you make a mud pie.” No one can say it as you can. That’s way writers are so protective of their work. But the good ones know, everyone needs an editor. That relationship is critical to the process. We writers can become blind to our own bad habits. The good editor will look for, and compliment the good stuff, but be honest about the bad stuff. It’s difficult to hear. The arguments can be fierce. But that’s what all writers should want. How can I make it better? It’s almost like someone telling you how to raise your child. You think you know best. But a clear, objective eye can see things you can’t or won’t.

I started reading as child and that spurred my interest in writing. A career in broadcast journalism as a writer, producer, and managing editor taught me the importance of strong writing and story telling. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of reading. Any good writer has to want to partake in the great feast of the written word. It gives you ideas. It pushes you to show what you can do. But it always comes back to you and the blank page. You have to push yourself. Ernest Hemingway, one of America’s greatest writers, who struggled with his demons of alcoholism and depression said, “You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or, rather, you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love.” This from a man who was married four times.

Humans have been writing stories since the first of us wrote them on cave walls. We want our stories and ideas to be heard. But the process of finding the words, and seeing them flow across the page, gives us that rush that only we can feel. Only we can create that feeling for ourselves. We hope our solitary art will stir feelings in the readers that can enrich, enlighten, inform, entertain, and even outrage them, and  make them come back for more.