• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

BobbyVoicu.com

I'm curious about stuff

  • Home
  • Entrepreneurship Articles
  • Startup Videos
  • About Me
  • Blog / Archive
You are here: Home / Misc / Why Writers Write (according to Joan Didion)

Why Writers Write (according to Joan Didion)

April 13, 2021 By Bobby Voicu Leave a Comment

I always wanted to write. I’ve never been actually good at it, but I always wanted to write.

When I was a kid, I would write short stories for school. But when one of my classmates wrote an enthralling story about the Second World War I wanted to be part of the process and I tried to continue what he wrote. And it was bad. And it’s not the adult in me saying it now. I knew THEN it was bad.

Today I found this:

Had my credentials been in order I would never have become a writer. Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write. I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. Why did the oil refineries around Carquinez Straits seem sinister to me in the summer of 1956? Why have the night lights in the bevatron burned in my mind for twenty years? What is going on in these pictures in my mind?

From here, via this BBC article about the best books of 2021 until now (April).

And I’m thinking one of the (many) issues I can’t write as good as I’d like is that I’m too much in my head. I process my thoughts and feelings in my head and when I express them they’re (most of the time) fully formed. And trying to write how i got to the final idea feels futile and inconsequential.

Oh, well…

◀The power of fans: Taylor Swift's negotiation tactics
Do pandemics ever completely end? Sometimes...▶

Filed Under: Misc

Bobby Voicu

Bobby Voicu writes here from time to time.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

About

I write about things that raise my curiosity. And I’m quite curious about all kinds of things.

For a full “About Me”, go here.

Recent Posts

  • I’m Gonna Live on a Boat
  • Plex on Rasberry Pi 4
  • Foundation: The Official Podcast
  • What is iOS 15 bringing?
  • I want: SteamDeck
  • SD Card formatter for Raspberry Pi compromised SD cards
  • Brandolini’s law or the bullshit asymmetry principle
  • Chat etiquette: Hi every time you start?
  • 5th Ocean: The Southern Ocean
  • The Impact of Work from Home

Friends

  • Dr. Alexandra Mircea
  • FreeBusy Meeting Scheduler
  • Miruna Sfia
  • PS Play Romania
  • Rød Mallo Leiva
  • Sami the Westie
  • Vlad Balan

The CEO Library Collections

  • Best Leadership Books
  • Best Productivity Books
  • Women Entrepreneur Books

Copyright © 2023 · Privacy Policy · Disclaimer