What Should They Say?

The other day I posted my inspiration pieces for my novel. Sometimes I see plots as well. Stories develop in my imagination. I look for a beginning, a middle, and an end. If the story doesn’t let go, then I know it will have to be written. Coming up with ideas is fun. Ideas make me ten again. They are play and possibility. As long as possibility exists, there is something to write.

The columnist David Brooks wrote about a new view of genius last week in The New York Times. He argues genius comes from hard work and practice. I agree on some level. I do believe practice produces better writing. And I believe this is true for every writer. Genius? Well, perhaps not for everyone.

This week the writer David Marshall Grant had this response to Brooks’ article. This point touches upon the essence of both the frustration and the joy of writing:

“It may be true that Tiger Woods’s greatness comes from a ‘deliberate, strenuous and boring practice routine.’ He is an athlete. A writer’s true greatness comes from something more elusive. Just because someone has figured out how to ‘get characters into a room — dozens and dozens of times,’ it doesn’t mean they have figured out what they should say.”