Writers Talking About Writing Makes Me Want to Puke

While i was finally washing my sink of rancid smelling dishes this morning i was listening to NPR, and there was some interview with the editor of a book on writers talking about how they write.

I HATE it when writer's talk about their rituals and little ways of being who they are. i cant help it, it always sounds precious and superior. Even when they seem cool and intelligent like Krauss, and try to deflate the mystique of writing and say "its just work," putting words and paragraphs together, it still sounds like a bunch of horse crap. The editor, a british man (sorry this is so vague i am too lazy to link and all that) asked somethign like 75 writers to submit a photo or object or image that they find totemic to their work habits. Except for the writer who apparently wrote in and said "money" I find the whole ritualization of work really annoying. The only thing that is true about writing is the novel New Grub Street by George gissing. Read that and you will understand a writer's life.

But all that said i think i would submit a cascading computer screen of profiles and websites and emails andconstantly ringing inboxes. I think what is totemic to my work is interruption and distraction. And as much as i do believe i get more work done when i am purely wrapped up in the words of something, this happens in slivers and moments -- on the subway, sitting and waiting for the subway, in the ten minutes between the refreshment of my entourage inbox, when my ipod is on shuffle, when i am waiting to get texted back...