The bravery of writers

Ask a non-writer which sounds scarier, writing a book or climbing Mount Everest, and the answer you hear will likely be the latter. Writers know better.

In his fine 1995 book The Courage to Write, Ralph Keyes explores just how scary writing can be, even for and perhaps especially for the best writers. The fears are many: Can I actually do this? Will anyone publish it? Will anyone want to read it? Will they like it? Will people laugh at me? What if I make embarrassing mistakes? What if people realize I am actually writing about them? What if I expose my true self in my writing?

Keyes shares the words and stories of many writers who have addressed their fears. E.B. White worried over every word, he tells us. "I write in terror," Cynthia Ozick said. "I have to talk myself into bravery with every sentence, sometimes every syllable." Erica Jong wrote, "Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place where it leads."

Yet fear in a writer is not necessarily a bad thing, assuming that writers possess the kind of courage Jong speaks about. Toni Morrison put it this way: "When you stiffen" (in anxiety while writing) "you know that whatever you stiffen about is very important. The stuff is important, the fear itself is information."

Or as Robert Cormier put it, "As much as there is joy in writing, there's always the little bit of terror to keep you on your toes."

There are plenty of how-to books out there for writers, but this book by Keyes is different in that it addresses not so much the writing itself as the courage it takes to actually do that writing, day after day after day. How much easier it would be to climb a mountain.