Speaking of Jonathan Kellerman, there are some really fine writers out there. Several have influenced my work for the better. I like to give them airtime when I speak in public. I’ll do the same now. Here’s what writers have to say about the “glories” of the writing life.
The sportswriter Red Smith observed, “Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.”
This on-target advice came from an Army Ranger scribbler: “If you’re ever an Army Ranger in a Black Hawk helicopter, about to land in the dead of night and capture the next Osama bin Laden—here’s what you do: legs in, butt tight, mind blank, goggles down, bolts checked, straps pulled and tested, grenades and flares at the ready, relationship to God figured out.”
Dorothy Parker offered this characteristically witty advice to anyone who knows some poor wannabe writer: “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”
Paul Theroux shared this about author moms: “Notice how many Olympic athletes effusively thanked their mothers for their success? ‘She drove me to my practice at four in the morning,’ etc. Writing is not figure skating or skiing. Your mother will not make you a writer. My advice to any young person who wants to write is: leave home.”
Woody Allen came up with this: “Lay your proboscis on the grindstone. Don’t look up. Work. Enjoy the work. If you don’t enjoy the work, change occupations.”
And finally, from the novelist Richard Ford: “Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer’s a good idea.”
I took Richard Ford’s advice.