Comments on: George Orwell on his own writing

By: Publetariat Dispatch: George Orwell On His Own Writing | Kindle Nation Daily

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 17:28:40 +0000

[...] is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s The [...]

By: alan

alan — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 00:44:02 +0000

James – why we do the things we do is an ongoing question. I suspect there is no single answer.

Stacey – I agree. Generalisations are always bad.

Rob – You’re as bitter as George.

By: Rob Kennedy

Rob Kennedy — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 23:38:03 +0000

Vain and selfish? Yep, that’s me. But lazy, I’m not sure what that word “lazy” means. I am busy and working all the time.

This read to me like how I feel about writing most of the time. Almost everything is not good enough. In fact almost all fiction writing I have read is not good enough, to me.

Writing clearly is by far the hardest thing I have ever tried to do. I’ve written four symphonies and dozens of other pieces of music. I’ve painted and drawn, I’ve run companies and writing a good coherent story is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do.

I agree with George; most writing I do and read is “humbug generally.”

By: Stacey

Stacey — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 11:28:09 +0000

I find it fascinating that so many established writers make such statements like it’s a universal experience. I have only written one work approaching novel length, and there were points where I struggled but I’m realising there is a real ecstatic rush in getting that first draft down. The creative orgasm (too much?). The redrafting/editing process is harder, but I hope I never come to feel that writing is torturous.

By: James Milton

James Milton — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 09:56:52 +0000

Of course the question is raised: why does *anyone* do what they do? I don’t think the special thing about writers is the central mystery of their calling so much as their tendency to ponder the central mystery aloud: replace writer/writing with baker/baking (say) in Orwell’s comment and the drama queen sort of leaps out at you. “Baker’s don’t *bake* – they make a pile of flour and open a *vein…*”