4.17.2012

Walk Away from the Page.


Sometimes when I'm writing, I fear walking away from the page. I've gotten to a certain point, and now nothing good is coming out, and the blinking cursor is mocking me, heightening my anxiety that this writing business is all just a farce. Tonight is such a night. So I started cleaning my house. It needed it so I had good enough reason. But as I set about gathering laundry and scouring dishes, the anxiety of the unwritten page, the lack of ideas, followed me.

So I sat down and picked up Hemingway. This is the passage that leaped off the page at me, gave me permission to walk away.
I always worked till I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day. But sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get going, I would sit in front of the fire an squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.’ So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written. Up in that room I decided I would write one story about each thing that I knew about. I was trying to do this all the time I was writing, and it was a good and severe discipline. 
It was in that room too that I learned not to think about anything that I was writing from the time I stopped writing until the time that I started again the next day. That way my subconscious would be working on it and at the same time I would be listening to other people and noticing everything, I hoped; learning, I hoped; and I would not think about my work and make myself impotent to it.” - Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast.

If you're a writer, it is so necessary to read. I know that seems obvious - I don't know a writer that doesn't love to read. But I would be willing to bet that many writers struggle with the same thing that I do - if I read, I'm not writing, and if I'm not writing, I could fall behind, forget my focus, lose my muse. This is the real farce : that walking away is somehow a form of quitting. No, you just have to have rest your writing, feed it, nourish it. You have to let things influence and inspire you.

What do you think? Who are the writers that most inspire you?

Some more Hemingway, plus advice about writing from the great minds behind other American classics

14 comments:

Meredith Miller said...

I feel so much pressure to have the "right", "deep" answer to this, but I just know whose words I love, who I read over and over.  So it's Jane Austin, with her long sentences and almost musical rhythm; C.S. Lewis, for making up such a wonderful world and then infusing darn-good theology into it; and Shauna Niequist, for taking about our contemporary world in a way that feels honest and timeless, and for writing about grief without setting out to write on grief.

Melissa said...

Great quote from Hemingway.  I find that I often feel more inspired and refreshed when I take a quick break in the middle of writing (unless I'm really on a roll!).  But I despise revising... it's so bad! 

Jim Woods said...

Wow. I could read and reread that quote over and over. Thanks so much for sharing! 

Pilar said...

Your writing inspires me :)  I have to admit I love reading what others write more than I like writing myself :)

Sophie Novak said...

I love your blog. Last night I went through so many of your posts and your writing is very soothing. 

As for writers that inspire, for a long time that was George Orwell for me, then Herman Hesse, Marcel Proust and others. From modern ones, I highly recommend Jon McGregor, an English writer. His first novel 'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things' inspired me highly. You can go on Amazon and read the first chapter and I guarantee that you'll want to read more. 

Bethany Suckrow said...

Sophie, thanks for all these suggestions! I will definitely put McGregor's book on my list!
And thanks for spending so much time on my blog - it means a lot to me!

Bethany Suckrow said...

I think that's okay, as long as you don't sell yourself short as a writer. If you're saying that out of fear of what others will think of your writing, that's not good. But if you prefer reading to writing, that is good. We're all meant for different things, you know? 

Bethany Suckrow said...

I was so blown away by the passage that I couldn't resist. Knew you would love it, Jim. Glad it inspired you, too! 

Bethany Suckrow said...

All good and worthy choices, Meredith!! Although, I really don't feel there is a wrong answer. Shauna Niequist is definitely one of my most influential authors. 
I actually met her when she came to speak at my university in 2007, just after she published Cold Tangerines. My nonfiction prose professor is a friend of hers, and she came to my class after speaking in chapel. She talked about what life was like for her when she was in her early twenties and still deciding whether she could be a writer. It totally inspired me, and I think that was the moment when it dawned on me that being a published author was a real, attainable goal rather than a lofty fantasy. Her memoir reflections have had a profound influence on both my writing and my faith. :) 

Bethany Suckrow said...

I totally agree with you, Melissa, although I do love to revise and edit. It's the nerd in me. :)

Andrea Beltran said...

I needed to read this post yesterday and forgot to say thank you! The writers that most inspire me are Junot Diaz (fiction) and Naomi Shihab Nye (poetry.)

Christopher Johnson said...

I never had any one writer inspire me. But I do know that I get inspired with what other people are talking about. I relate it to standing in line in grade school and telling jokes. You hear one joke and it reminds you of several you know. 

Natalie said...

Inspiring, once again.  I'm so glad to have found your blog through Prodigal and am encouraged as I approach new projects today.  As I got into my car to drive to my local coffee shop and get started, I thought to myself, "I know a few things that are true" and was excited.  Thank you again.

Jean-Marc Saint Laurent said...

A good look at the act of pure writing.  Hemingway brings you into the world of the writer: the anguish, expectancy and process.
Thomas Mann was right when he said "The writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." I agree with Meredith even in writing a comment, I want to produce the  "right" response, but I guess honesty is the happy medium.

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