If you’re not like them , however , if you’re not ( sad to say ) a rare genius , and you wish to , gradually , over time , raise the level of the ( more or less limited ) talent you do have , and make it into something powerful , I believe my theory might be of some value . You toughen up your will as much as you can .

Then I sit there and muse about what to write that day . Such moments are pure bliss . To tell the truth , I have never found writing painful . Neither ( thankfully ) have I ever found myself unable to write . What’s the point of writing , anyway , if you’re not enjoying it ? I can’t get my head around the idea of “the suffering writer . ”... See more

For the most part , novelists are trying to convert something present in their consciousness into a story . Yet there is an inevitable gap between the preexisting original and the new shape it is spawning . That creates a dynamic the novelist can use as a kind of lever in the fashioning of his narrative . This is quite a roundabout way to do things... See more