{"id":12073,"date":"2011-01-10T14:16:20","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T21:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=12073"},"modified":"2011-01-10T14:16:20","modified_gmt":"2011-01-10T21:16:20","slug":"on-writing-and-mortality-at-big-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=12073","title":{"rendered":"On Writing and Mortality at Big Other"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve posted some thoughts on Writing and Mortality<\/a> at Big Other.<\/p>\n

An excerpt:<\/p>\n

A year or two ago, an article made the rounds which had collected ten pieces of writing advice from a number of famous authors. Some of the advice was irritating, some was true but banal, some was presumably profound, and some were amusing for their own sake.<\/p>\n

One piece of advice that got picked up and repeated was the idea that if you were working on a project, and found out that you had six weeks to live, and then would be willing to set aside the project, it was the wrong project.<\/p>\n

I really dislike that advice. It seems to me that it originates from the same place that makes writers say things like \u201ca real writer *has* to write\u201d or \u201cany writers who can be discouraged, should be.\u201d… I don\u2019t have to write. I have to eat. I have to sleep. I might miss writing. I don\u2019t *have* to do it.<\/p>\n

I feel like saying \u201cI *have* to write\u201d is a way of absenting oneself from agency over the decision, consciously or subconsciously. Writing is a risky career choice and one that doesn\u2019t always yield a lot of concrete reward or social approval. But if one pretends it\u2019s not a choice, then one doesn\u2019t have to worry about those things, or at least not in the same way. It\u2019s not their fault that they aren\u2019t making more money; they *have* to write. They don\u2019t have to doubt themselves; they had no choice. Likewise, how could you be so cruel to doubt them when this is something they must do to survive?<\/p>\n

Art is cool. But it\u2019s not bread.<\/p>\n

And if I had six weeks to live, I would want to spend as much of them with my husband, family and friends as I possibly could.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more at Big Other<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve posted some thoughts on Writing and Mortality at Big Other. An excerpt: A year or two ago, an article made the rounds which had collected ten pieces of writing advice from a number of famous authors. Some of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whatever"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}