Congrats on graduating.

Let us know about the novel as you progress, if you desire. I would love to get some more thoughts about people finishing their work here.

Also, I am interested in exchanging a few emails with anyone who has read the book and either liked it or disliked it. My feelings go both ways on it.

From a creative writing career POV, what I took away from the movie and all of the additional interviews and stories was…..well….hhhhhmmm, I write to tell stories. If I generate cash along the way at some point, great! If not, then fine. I don’t have a financial relationship with what I write. (I think I am rambling, so, I will shut up.)

And like the person who posted the initial blog entry, the movie added many books to my to-read shelf above my desk.

Anyway, good blog entry. Anyone read the book? Thoughts on it?????

Hope to see you coming back.

In particular, I appreciate this:

“The idea that we should or must produce and produce is based on a distorted idea of ourselves, and our creativity.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

How writers handle their desire for a long career of artistic achievements that are publicly validated is central. Whether we get was we think we want or not in this regard doesn’t matter - either can feed us or destroy us.

Tillie Olsen’s book, *Silences,* talks about the silences, imposed from within and without, that writers struggle with; so does *On Writer’s Block.* In fact, whenever we teach writing to others, we should talk about this. People’s aspirations differ, obviously, and we’re shy about admitting that we’d like to be bestselling novelists, or critically acclaimed (and making a living), but if we don’t acknowledge our ambition, we can’t deal with its downside: depression.

Writers pride themselves on their writing. But what happens when it’s not going well? We feel awful. It’s all very well to talk about process — and in the end, that has to be what we take pleasure in, because it’s what we have control over — but we also want external validation. When it doesn’t come at the level we’d like or it’s withdrawn, that can be devastating.

Ask serious writers how they feel about going to bookstores, and they’ll tell you of their struggles to master their feelings of envy and insignificance. But uncoupling one’s self-worth from dreams of literary stardom can have the unintended consequence of eliminating one’s drive to write. (Take it from one who knows.)

All that said, wouldn’t you rather write one fabulous book, like *To Kill a Mockingbird* than a whole string of well-regarded-but-not-widely-read books? I’ve always admired Harper for not writing a second book. She hit the target once, and that was — apparently — enough. That sort of self-knowledge and restraint strikes me as indicative of a person whose life is in balance.

After all, why should writers necessarily write more than one book? Some of us don’t have more than one in us, and some of us don’t even have one. That’s okay. The idea that we should or must produce and produce is based on a distorted idea of ourselves, and our creativity.

So here’s to more silence, and the confidence to choose it.