Novice writers or people who rarely write often state that they aren't good writers, or that they don't enjoy writing. Expert writers, those who write more frequently, often develop their own ideas of what writing is.
Stephen King, Writing is Telepathy
Stephen King believes that writing is telepathy. “All the arts depend upon telepathy to some degree, but I believe that writing offers the purest distillation” (p. 95).
He acknowledges that writing is a learned skill, but continues by asking, “…do we not agree that sometimes the most basic skills can create things far beyond our expectations? We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style…but as we move along, you’d do well to remember that we are also talking about magic” (p. 131).
Lewis Thomas, Grammar Means Magic
Lewis Thomas reminds us that the root word of grammar is related to the Scotch word “glamour,” and reaches back to the Egyptian word, which means magic. Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony.
Sherman Alexie, Writing as Magic
The act of writing seems akin to transmutation of elements. Sherman Alexie, in his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, advises “Imagine a story that puts wood in the fireplace.” In this case, the writer is like a magician, conjuring a story that creates a way to provide a home with the most elemental of home necessities: the fire in the hearth.
Jim Carroll, Writing as Alchemy
Some writers evoke the imagery of writing being akin to alchemy. Speaking of Jim Carroll’s writing, Cassie Carter titled her master’s thesis “Shit into Gold: Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries and Forced Entries.” Carter discusses how writers, specifically Jim Carroll, can reinvent themselves through writing. The Medieval allusions throughout Carroll’s writing support this image of the writer as an alchemist.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, See Your Words Turn to Gold on the Page
Nathaniel Hawthorne also uses the imagery of alchemy to describe the writing process: “At some future day, it may be, I shall remember a few scattered fragments and broken paragraphs, and write them down, and find the letters turn to gold upon the page.”
Thus, writers who dread writing can re-view the writing process, and look for the magic in the words they place on the page.
References
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
Carroll, Jim. The Basketball Diaries.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter.
King, Stephen. On Writing.
Thomas, Lewis. Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony.
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