Although they both depend on words, writing is nothing like speaking.
Speaking is spontaneous. Writing is pre-meditated.
Being a good conversationalist means thinking on one’s feet. Being a good writer means thinking on one’s seat.
That’s why writing is more like sculpting than speaking. The sculptor begins with nothing more than raw material.
A blob of clay, a block of marble, a slab of stone.
The writer has his white sheet of paper, the infinite white space of Microsoft Word or Wordpress post box waiting for words.
Just as the artist has to prep is materials, preparing them to take the desired shape, the writer must bring some finitude to the unbounded white infinity of his material, bringing at least some sort of initial shape to his ideas with some words, however prosaic.
And then the slow, methodical, patient work of sculpting begins.
With chisel or pen, the IDEA starts to take shape, little by little, stroke by stroke. Everything begins in this humble process; the beautiful no less than the banal, the masterpiece no less than the garbage.
And then the creator takes a step back to look at what his hand has wrought. He distances himself, looks on it as the observer, not as the prophet of the Muses. Now he can get close again, knowing what he has to do.
A change here, a change there, constantly tweaking and teasing, shaping and kneading. Slowly, the IDEA takes shape and becomes a reality. It’s done only when the artist says it’s done.
In the end, it says exactly what he wants it to say.
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