October 16th, 2008

Writing fiction is not my job…

…because no one is making me do it–though I have tons of help and support, I could stop tomorrow and no one would mind. That’s a really good thing for me to remember when I’m tired and bitchy and writing the nth draft of something hard: no one asked me to write this, no one is dying to see it but me, but no one will write it if I don’t. That’s usually enough to keep me working, and when it isn’t, I probably shouldn’t have been writing that piece in the first place.

It’s probably dreadfully tacky to quote oneself, but the above is from me, in response to one of Leila Amiri’s thoughtful interview questions in our interview for the Concordia Link. I forget the above far too often, but putting it here might serve as a good reminder.

You were working as a waitress in a hotel bar
RR