It takes me about seven drafts before I’m even willing to show a manuscript to anyone. And, really, even when I taught creative writing, I tried to make this point to my students: don’t do it for the glory. Don’t do it for the money, because most of the time it’s not there. You have to do it for yourself. And I also tell them that even though I make a living at it, I’d be writing even if I was still bagging groceries in a grocery store. I mean that’s what I do. I love writing. I think of writing as a special way of seeing, because good writing brings out the specialness of ordinary things.
Children or college students seem to think they have to go to Paris, or they have to have a shipwreck before they can begin writing. And the fact is that’s not true. I would actually have exercises in writing, where I would have the students write about their desktop; because there are different things you can do, different tricks you can use to really focus in on what you’re looking at. And because, really, all it requires is looking at an object and then taking one step to the side and looking at that object from a slightly different angle.
