Living with It Dept. Perusing an obscure French philosopher on the subject of art, I came across something that probably should have been written by Stephen King, or Barbara Kingsolver—but never was:
“Several writers have noted the feeling of discomfort experienced by the writer who carried within himself a work not yet written and which, even before it has been undertaken, ‘wants to come out.’ If it is ever to be born, it will not be before its term of nine months or nine years—nonum prematur in annum—after which the writer will once more find himself alone, in the solitude where he was before conceiving it. The very feeling of these solitudes sufficiently confirms the living presence so vividly experienced in between. It will be hard to convince the artist that during the years which were sometimes required for it to become viable, the work in him was nothing….”
Courtesy of Etienne Gilson. You can get lots of advice in writing books and seminars about how to write. But not often a lot of wisdom about the living with it every day….