Re: entrance essays YUCK

Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Thu, 01 Jan 1998 17:22:57 -0500

Eric said:

> It was a weak
> point yesterday.  I was frustrated.  I never should have sent that message, I
> realize that.  I really do enjoy writing, but I think sometimes that I can't
> express myself the way I'd like.  So sometimes I bitch and moan, but usually
> to myself.  I'll try to keep it that way the next time I have to write
> something challenging, and hopefully I can at some point become a decent
> writer.

Will made a good, important point about how if you *want* something badly
enough, there's good discipline in trying to get it -- even if it's hard,
discouraging work.

All writers have "weak points" and bad moments.  There's nothing wrong with
that, and it's nothing you should feel you need to hide or deny.  It's
often in learning how to work through the difficult times that you realize
success.  Few of the works you know and love came sailing forth from the
writer's pen without effort!

> BTW, I finished a nice rough draft of the essay about an hour after I sent
> that message.  Ha!

... Which is, more or less, the point I was making.  8-)

There is a splendid chapter in Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" called, I
think, "The Making of a Critic," in which a fellow comes to Hemingway's
favorite cafe and interrupts him and whines about how hard it is to write,
and  Hemingway somehow manages to both offer good advice and skewer the man
memorably.  Have a glance at the book if you really want to boost your
spirits.  Some days I think every newly minted writer ought to be issued a
copy of that book, along with a fresh bottle of ink.

--tim