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Thursday 10 January 2013

The Write Advice 028: IAN McEWAN


Well, the joy [of writing] is infrequent.  Sometimes one just hits those easy stretches, moments of extended felicity when every sentence tells you how to write the next oneIn the course of a single novel, maybe it happens, if I’m lucky, a dozen times in two yearsAnd then the rest of the time –– for me, it would be ridiculous to call it joyBut it would be wrong and self-dramatizing to call it agonyMore like a brute determination to push on, but often against the grain, something that makes me not want to not doI was reading a book about consciousness the other day, and the very first sentence said something like ‘My mind appears to have a mind of its own.Which I rather likedBecause every time I try to get on with my work, my mind wanders –– I’m always standing up and fleeing from it, as though it’s almost too muchOr do I mean too little?  I don’t even think I know.

Interview [Vanity Fair, April 2005]

 


Use the link below to visit the website of British writer IAN McEWAN:


https://www.ianmcewan.com/

   

 

You might also enjoy:

 
The Write Advice 045: AMY HEMPEL

 
The Write Advice 039: DEBORAH EISENBERG

 
The Write Advice 038: NICK HORNBY

 

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