Recipe To Write: Start With One Aching Urge

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Recipe To Write: Start With One Aching Urge

November 13, 2012 by kmabarrett

If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it. You must perceive the excellence that makes a good story good or the errors that makes a bad story. For a bad story is only an ineffective story.

— John Steinbeck

[The above quote was found at a blog site I follow (and have mentioned several times): Lead.Learn.Live maintained by David Kanigan.

The specific quote was under the heading: “Writing Better“

If there is a “magic” in blogging, it is that it allows those of us who are not traditional writers to express ourselves – to ease our “aching urge” – conveying to the universe of readers the moments in our days where something touched us and made us feel something important just happened in our lives. Sometimes those things will be banally trite to most; but, sometimes, to others they will be like the light from a candle, passed from one to another, without loss to either but with more light for both. — KMAB]

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Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Writing | Tagged David Kanigan, John Steinbeck, Lead.Learn.Live, On Writing, Philosophy, Quotes, Recipies For Writing | 3 Comments

3 Responses

on November 13, 2013 at 3:37 am | Reply Steven Bowen

It has been recommended to me by many; from family member to wayward stranger and passerbyer, that I should write. For almost 15 years now this has occurred. The “aching urge” became strong enough several months ago when I started my own blog. With no expectation as to the outcome at the beginning, this “urge” has only become stronger. My only challenge has been that when I write, it “has to be something so powerful” that it will stir the souls and minds of those who read it. This began to out a lot of self-imposed stress on me and, in hindsight, realize that I had become entirely too critical of myself – which, I am sure, is not entirely uncommon. It is encouraging that it is OK to write something that may seem “banally trite,” for it is not always in message of the writing, but that it was written at all, and to write for writing’s sake. I am glad I read this post you wrote 1 year ago today. Thank you for posting.
- on November 13, 2013 at 8:10 pm | Reply kmabarrett
  
  Hi Steve,
  I’m glad you took the time to “look back” and that you enjoyed the post.
  
  I’ve been adding these little “peep-holes” back in time for a couple of months now just to see if they become popular. So far, not so much… You are only the second person to comment on one of them (after the fact), although they do seem to be getting viewed. My plan has been to try it out for a year or so to see if it catches on. It’s a fair amount of extra editing because I don’t have a tool to just go back and “look” across dates and make the list automatically. Of course the big extra is that it provides me with the opportunity to re-read my own older posts.
  
  I too occasionally get the urge to write something powerful and profound. I’ve found a short nap or a long walk generally helps it go away. I’m afraid for all my (occasional) rants and raves, at my core I’m less interested in moving mountains than I am in shifting grains of sand. I think believing I have to stir souls (regularly) would put far too much stress on me and take some of the joy from my little postings.
  
  In any case, I’m glad you enjoyed the older post and hope you’ll continue to look back with me regularly (as well as observing the present and looking forward to the future).
  
  And thank you for the comment.
  🙂
on November 15, 2012 at 7:50 am | Reply This Is My Lunch Break: The Perceived Non-Value Of Blogging « The Narcissistic Anthropologist

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