Being a writer versus writing

[steepholm]

Having read beccadelarosa's excellent post on the subject of what it means to be a writer yesterday, I was amused today to come across a passage in Middlemarch in which Dorothea is very sensible about the whole subject. (I've quoted it in a comment over at beccadelarosa's.)

While I concur with both Dorothea and beccadelarosa, I prefer the latter's take as being both more grounded and more forgiving. And, given that I've been waiting for the pierian cistern to refill for an unwonted time now, and have made a strategic decision not to worry about it, I particularly like the note about the lack of an expiration date.

Both De La Rosa and Eliot are recommended.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I have been hoping to get the time to reread the conversation in Daniel Deronda about creativity and art, and compare it to Beccadelarosa's excellent riff. But woo, heat and tearing the house apart to get ready for guests, which includes tearing apart parts of the library . . . well, ain't done.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I've not read Daniel Deronda yet, but this has me intrigued! Sympathies on the heat and house-tearing.