On writing

[Ron Brand]

I'm often fascinated with the peek behind the curtain. Here is a recounting of Theodore Sturgeon's writer's block in 1955, about which he wrote a letter to Robert Heinlein. The reply he received is amazing.

[Bench]

"A little cat ghost, padding patiently around in limbo, trying to find that familiar, friendly lap..."

That reminds me of the famous (possibly apocryphal) Hemingway story, when he was challenged to write a story in just six words:  "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

[das]

I'm often fascinated with the peek behind the curtain. Here is a recounting of Theodore Sturgeon's writer's block in 1955, about which he wrote a letter to Robert Heinlein. The reply he received is amazing.

Thanks for posting that, it made my morning.  I have and have always had a huge appreciation for the academic altruism of the writer communities of previous generations.  I’m not so sure it’s still like this due to the big $$ involved now but don't know for sure.  This idea is priceless:

"There was this man Flammonde who came to our town and grandly borrowed what he needed. Edward Arlington Robinson has dealt well and fully with Flammonde in verse but he has not been described in prose. The power that Flammonde had was to make everyone around him happier, richer in experience, greater in his own self-esteem. Naturally a man like that would not have to work. It is a neat trick.  What exact knowledge of how human beings work can enable a man always to make other people happier simply by his own presence?  Cats have made a racket and a good thing out of this knowledge for seven thousand years without even bothering to flatter the recipient of the pleasure."

[Mr. Happy]

I'm often fascinated with the peek behind the curtain. Here is a recounting of Theodore Sturgeon's writer's block in 1955, about which he wrote a letter to Robert Heinlein. The reply he received is amazing.

Having authored or co-authored three books myself, albeit on the easier genre of non-fiction, I have found that the key to writing is to work from an extensive outline. It is this outline with which I struggle from time to time with the so-called "writer's block," because it requires open-eyed brain-storming. And sometimes my brain simply doesn't have enough in it at the moment to work. Thankfully, this passes quickly. But you look to get on that "roll, where the dual surges of adrenalin and excitement carry the day and cart you to the finish line. If I can get the book outline done, in my experience, writing the book is a piece of cake.