Write, Right, Rite

One of the dangers of trying to be a writer is that it is sometimes easier to study writing than it is to actually sit down and write. No, that is wrong. It is much easier to read and talk about writing than to commit to the “butt in chair” time that is required to produce something. Having said that, I want to share some thoughts from Flannery O’Connor. She is one of the patron saints of writing deeply spiritual stories that don’t appear as such on the surface. She died fairly young but she left us a trove of thought-provoking stories and thoughts on writing. The following blurbs are from her book “Mystery and Manners.” It is a collection of articles, speeches and essays and the majority have to do with being a writer in general and, in some of the most interesting pages, a writer of faith. Time for me to shut up and hand the reigns to Miss O’Connor...

Any discipline can help your writing: logic, mathematics, theology, and of course and particularly drawing. Anything that helps you to see, anything that makes you look. The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that doesn’t require his attention.

...

The fact is that anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days. If you can’t make something out of a little experience, you probably won’t be able to make it out of a lot. The writer’s business is to contemplate experience, not to be merged in it.

...

In fact, so many people can now write competent stories that the short story as a medium is in danger of dying of competence. We want competence, but competence by itself is deadly. What is needed is the vision to go with it, and you do not get this from a writing class.

...

And one of my favorites...
Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.

Enjoy your day. Start reading a new book.