From Jack Kerouac, Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954:
Another thought that helps a writer as he works along--let him write his novel "the way he'd like to see a novel written." This helps a great deal freeing you from the fetters of self-doubt and the kind of self-mistrust that leads to over-revision, too much calculation, preoccupation with "what others would think." Look at your own work and say, "This is a novel after my own heart!" Because that's what it is anyway, and that's the point--it's worry that must be eliminated for the sake of individual force. In spite of all this insouciant advice, I myself advanced slowly today, but not poorly, working on the final draft of the chapter. I'm a little rusty. Oh and what a whole lot of bunk I could write this morning about my fear that I can't write, I'm ignorant and worst of all, I'm an idiot trying to achieve something I can't possibly do. It's in the will, in the heart! To hell with these rotten doubts. I defy them and spit on them. Merde!
1 comment:
I dropped the *f* bomb myself when I hit a low point. I am trying to blog without vulgarity. Just for the heck of it. Not that I'm against gratuitous vulgarity.
This is a truly inspirational book. All about his writing. To me, it's comforting to know the Great Ones faced the same fears and trepidations as a Mere Mortal Writer like moi.
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