“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
― Stephen King
No offense to Mr. King, but I’d like to humbly offer my own counter-saying: If you want to up and quit writing in utter despair, keep on reading, sucker.
I hate to admit it, but sometimes it feels like the more widely I read, the more depressed I get, knowing what I WON’T ever achieve with my writing. Take this paragraph from the New York Times’ columnist Sam Anderson:
“No event fractures us into contradiction more completely than death. It is beyond rational response, inscrutable on every scale — from the death of a moth to the death of a pet to the death of a year to the death of a sibling. We curse and celebrate, resist and accept, look backward and forward at once.”
–from New Sentences: From Richard Lloyd Parry’s ‘Ghosts of the Tsunami’. New York Times Magazine.
I mean, come on! That’s just filthy gooood. And that was just a run-of-the-mill Sunday for that guy.
I suppose reading a lot to steal a lot might keep one going for awhile. And I do particularly love the structure of Mr. Anderson‘s first line:
No event Transitive Verb into Noun/state more Adverb than Event.
No event frenzies us into exhaustion more dependably than finishing the GD Christmas shopping.
No event hurls us into satisfaction more successfully than orgasm.
No event divides us into competition more swiftly than a family potluck.
No event pounds us into humble submission more thoroughly than parenting.
Yeah. I’d say that’s a step up from my usual profoundly expressed insights: “Damn, parenting is hard.” And “Christmas shopping sucks sometimes.”
Despite the discouragement, I somehow find the courage to write (and read) on. I suppose I’ve found over time that no event beckons us into delirium more insistently than writing…
Writing Me Home 
Gosh your statement hit home – it seems the more I read, the less I feel I have the ability to say anything worth putting in print. That’s part of the reason why I do this challenge every year – just to force myself to.
Yeah. I started each writing session so far with some version of “What could I possibly have to say?” This challenge IS really good to get past that hurdle and just write anyway!
This is emphatic and fresh. I feel your discouragement and angst. Btw, I love the NYT sentence you used as an example, utterly perfect. Sigh! Yet,you give yourself too little credit. That was some darn good writing yourself, right out of the bag
Thanks so much. I try to be more inspired than discouraged. But it isn’t always easy…
This is such a perfect post! I love the self-depreciation coupled with the attempts at recreating that perfectly composed sentence. Well done! You need to give yourself more credit. You’re one of my writing idols!
Strong voice in this piece. I bet everyone, including Sam Anderson, can relate to “come on, that’s just filthy good” feeling when reading some authors. Only the ones who continue writing after this feeling will get bettter at writing.
Ironically, this is very well written. I haven’t written a blog that is any where this good yet, but I still enjoyed reading yours!