Somethin' to Talk About

Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about,
a little mystery to figure out.

With this Bonnie Raitt lyric, I begin another post on the act of writing following posts by Sarah Weinman, Jim Winter, Ray Banks. Essentially, I agree with Ray that it's difficult to talk about. Writing is everything that goes on before the opening curtain. Performers are often asked what goes on behind the scenes, and they say things like, "I need a ton of rehearsal," "I'm such a klutz," "If you want to see the real me, catch me first thing in the morning."

Fans like to ask, but no one really wants to know a performer is just like you or me. Some part wants to maintain the illusion of what we see onstage: the best or most dramatic we can be. Talking about it lessens the magical experience that writers deserve to give and readers deserve to have.

In the best writing classes, we don't talk about writing very much; we write and then, having read our writing, talk about story. You can only discuss something so far before giving an example ("But here, I'll show you what I mean.")

When I was learning to drive, to calm my nerves I asked, "Is there anything I can do outside a car that would help?"

The answer, as you might expect, was "No."

Talking about writing is not writing. The only way to learn to write, to learn what will work for you, is to write. As Elvis suggested:

A little less conversation,
a little more action, please.