Writers Writing About Writing

If this were a genre, I’d read it nonstop. As if writing about writers writing about writing isn’t meta enough, I’m going deep on this one.

Writers have a lot to say about writing. Perhaps it’s to encourage their kinfolk to write because those of us “living the dream” know how hard it is. We know the nasty woes of writer’s block— the grey days turned grey nights where the cursor just blinks and blinks and blinks at you. We know the rejection letters, the eons of edits that go undone, and the secret society we belong to where we judge your grammar. Yes, yours. Maybe that’s why writers write about writing— to commiserate.

I read what other writers have to say because I think what they have to say is valid. Varying opinions about style, habits, and tools is all very interesting to me. If you’re a best-selling author, why not add to your collection by publishing a book about what you do best?

A non-writer friend recommended I read Anne Patchett’s This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. I hadn’t read her bestsellers (yet!) but was willing to give the collection of short stories a try. Turns out, she can write. Even better, she can relate. She described the process of writing so eloquently that I wanted to dive even deeper into my practice and become a better writer. She motivated me to practice more fiction despite the failed attempts of my past. In a format I’d never really given a chance, short stories were a new way for me to explore plot development with an abbreviated deadline. Patchett described her journey through the world of publishing like a recovering addict would have. I felt like it was okay to hate something, even my own writing, but not to let it stop me from doing what I want deep down.

I’ve seen advice curated on sites such as The Write Life, Brain Pickings, and I’ve watched every TED talk about writing and by every published author. Isabel Allende said it best, “Heart is what drives us and determines our fate. That is what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart.” We need heart in our writing too and in our lives to keep us going. She was telling me to write what I am passionate about. So I do.

From time to time, I’ll browse the stacks of the nonfiction section at the library and run across various how-to books on writing. Countless books jump out at me, telling me how to write better, be better, and publish better. It gets annoying at times but when I’m ready to listen, they’re always there to push me through the dark moments in writing— when you can’t write another damn page. They scream, “Listen up! Other writers have something good to say.”