Thursday, December 01, 2005

Quote

"Close the door. Write with - no one - looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer."

Barbara Kingsolver

2 comments:

Dean said...

I hate writing creatively with someone reading over my shoulder. I just hate it with a passion, and I don't know why.

It's funny: I don't mind people reading anything else over my shoulder, just creative stuff.

Anonymous said...

I can write under pretty much any circumstance, but I don't enjoy writing when I have an audience and I do my best writing when I don't have an audience. A calm environment's my favorite writing environment, which is partly why I've done a lot of late-night writing--at least in the past. Nowadays I don't often have enough physical energy for late-night literary appointments.

I used to have a when-do-you-write poll on my site, and most responders chose late at night, I think probably because of that calmness thingie and because many writers have busy-with-other-stuff days with their families, day-jobs, etc., but also because ideas may need a building up period, may need to reach a critical idea-mass before they can overflow brains.