literature

FFM 17 - Keep Writing

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Literature Text

A writer walks into a bar. He gets drunk. A poet walks into a bar. She also gets drunk. The poet and the writer are in the same bar, both drunk, and the writer says to the poet, "I hate writing." And the poet says to the writer, "I hate writing too." And they both get even more drunk to escape this fact, which may be a hint as to the stereotype of alcoholic writers.

Later in the night, the poet asks the writer, "Why do we even write?" The writer, unable to answer her, says, "I don't know." The poet asks the writer, "What is it about writing that we keep doing it?" The writer, still unable to answer, says, " I don't know." The poet asks the writer, "Why does it feel as if we are possessed to write by a force we can't explain, that even through our self-loathing we feel a drive to create?" The writer stays silent for a moment then says, "I don't know," and then he continues, "because it is different for each person. I write because I have to, because I feel I must. No matter what this force is, I know it is a part of me that defines who I am. It may be that I write because writing is a kind of drinking, and it may be that we write for the same reasons we drink: to get through life, to ease the burden of time, to enjoy the moment in which we find ourselves, to say what we would not be able to say otherwise, to share what we could not otherwise, to see, to breathe, to live. For I cannot live in this world that is given to me, and I must drink to live in it. I must write so that I can recreate this self that would otherwise be destroyed."

There is silence between them, the noise of the other bar-goers a background to their thoughts. And the writer asks, "So why do you keep writing?"
For :iconflash-fic-month: Day 17

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

"Why one writes is a question I can answer easily, having so often asked it of myself. I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live. I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me — the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art."
— Anaïs Nin, February 1954 The Diary of Anaïs Nin Vol. 5 (1947-1955), as quoted in Woman as Writer (1978) by Jeannette L. Webber and Joan Grumman, p. 38

This is actually something old. I can't remember what the context is, but it still holds true. I recommend Zen in the Art of Writing to everyone, by the way. Some of the most useful advice I've ever read, and it isn't boring.
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IcySkittles's avatar
This speaks of everything that I feel about writing.