Anyone who has ever professionally hovered over a keyboard knows the feeling. Writing is a process. Sometimes it flows; sometimes it trickles. And sometimes it’s, well, damable.
Even J.D. Salinger agreed. We now know this from outtakes of “Salinger,” a 700-page biography by David Shields and Shane Salerno. They quote Salinger’s assessment that writing is “the hardest of the arts.” Salinger explained: “Our instrument is a blank sheet of paper–no strings, no frets, no keys, no reed, mouthpiece, nothing to do with the body whatever–God, the unnaturalness of it. Always waiting for birth, every time we sit down to work.”
Thanks for the reminder, J.D.