Reading the words of a good writer is almost as satisfying as writing something decent myself.

Garrison Keillor's Salon PortraitA recurring favorite is Garrison Keillor. I like his writing style and observational bent, and his most recent Salon.com essay lands squarely on the bullseye. He’s finishing a book project on a deadline, and experiencing all the doubts, questions, and fears that accompany it. (I love the illustrated “author’s picture” they use in the column. I want one.)

It’s not so different from my feelings when a big project goes down the wire to the client. Will they love it? Will they appreciate the creative positioning? The hook? The conversational tone?

Or will I get one of those “we like it, but…” calls of doom?

Of course, Keillor’s work appears with his name under it. There are times I wish commercial copy enjoyed the same tradition, and there are times I’m glad it doesn’t. We’d see less real crap out there, and probably a few more red-faced copywriters too.

In any case, statistics suggest you’ve been sitting at the keyboard too long. Take Keillor’s advice and enjoy a walk:

Writers get obsessed with a project and lock the doors and sit and work at it, like animals in a leg trap trying to chew through the leg, which is not good strategy. My advice is to get out of the house and take a walk, a good first cure for the depression that hits after you’ve been working for a year and it dawns on you that your book is not “Huckleberry Finn” but you must finish it anyway because the publisher’s generous advance has been spent on a new pair of shoes for the baby and she has worn a hole in them already, so you press on — on — on — though it strikes you that the world has a great many books already and does it need yours?

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

p.s. — If you’re in the mood for more Keillor, read his column about writers, whining, and life. Most excellent.

[tags]writing, writers, garrison keillor[/tags]

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