Trying to get it down

For those who follow this blog, you know that I have been working on a book for quite a long time.  I'm not able to work on it for long periods of time as my fingers and hands tell me how long I can work these days.  So, when my hands aren't shaking, having neuropathy or having sharp arthritic pain, I work as quickly as I can to write this book.

For the first time, I'm really pleased with the content thus far.  While sometimes I am able to take the time necessary to really craft a good story, sometimes I am forced to rush through just to get the story down as I think of it.  I use an outline, but sometimes working as the inspiration comes is much better.

I've read alot of the greats and classics and saw myself becoming frustrated and discouraged because it seemed that writing was so easy for them.  It's like watching a virtuoso musician play a difficult selection without even breaking a sweat.  No struggling, just the production of smooth genius.  I was harrumphing to myself this morning as I thought of great books that read so gracefully, profoundly and yet, simply.  I hope my book will be one of those classics one day, but I can only wish at this point.

I was heartened to read a quote from a literary master who was harrumphing as I was regarding his writing.  Who would have thunk?  In any event, I hope that one day if I am designated a master, that someone will find a quote from me saying the same thing so that writers won't quit the journey.

“I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit, I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.” ~ Ernest Hemingway in conversation with F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1934.