I did a little online interview this morning with Jason Alba over at JibberJobber about the process of writing and publishing books. It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes about the writing process, from Ernest Hemingway.
"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof
shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have
had it."
It stands the test of time well.
So true. I used to need a month. I wrote something and usually thought I was king of the world, and I knew that if I still felt that way after a month or so, it probably was good. But a lot of the time I was embarrassed to look at what I’d written after some time.
Now, I’ve gotten more efficient, it seems. My bullshit radar is perhaps finally tuned correctly?
“After writing a story I was always empty and both sad and happy, as though I had made love, and I was sure this was a very good story although I would not know truly how good until I read it over the next day.”
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