"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."Source: Nebraska Center for Writers
— Jack London
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Welcome to Practicing Writing! As of August 19, 2010, this blog has moved to www.erikadreifus.com. Please visit us there and bookmark the new site. Many thanks!
About Me
Erika Dreifus lives and writes in New York City. Her story collection, Quiet Americans, will be published in January 2011 by Last Light Studio Books. Erika is a contributing editor for The Writer magazine and an advisory board member for J Journal: New Writing on Justice, and she wrote the section on "Choosing a Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing" for the second edition of Tom Kealey's Creative Writing MFA Handbook (Continuum, 2008). Erika's writing practice encompasses fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. For more about Erika's writing, please visit her website.
Erika is also the editor/publisher of The Practicing Writer, a free (and popular) e-newsletter featuring advice, opportunities, and resources on the craft and business of writing for fictionists, poets, and writers of creative nonfiction.
Erika is also the editor/publisher of The Practicing Writer, a free (and popular) e-newsletter featuring advice, opportunities, and resources on the craft and business of writing for fictionists, poets, and writers of creative nonfiction.
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5 comments:
I think Jack London is implying that when I find inspiration, I should beat it into submission. Not very inspiring when I think of it that way.
Anyway, I could use some inspiration, so I'll think of it your way.
No, you're right, Theresa. It's not very inspiring when looked at a certain way! For me, "inspiration" is sometimes difficult, so I do like the idea of simply pursuing it, however elusive it may be.
I think this quote is great!
No, I think his quote gets it right. After all, London didn't say "when you find inspiration bring out the club," he said when you can't find it you should do so. The image that comes to my mind is a person swinging a club against a thicket of overgrown weeds and threatening animals, or in other words: lethargy, fatigure, distraction, boredom, self-doubt, restlessness. All those things that keep one from going deep into yourself and your writing.
I take it to mean "seize the day" or "don't let any opportunity pass you by." Any opportunity is a good opportunity as long as it's reachable with a club and not some pie in the sky.
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