The Writing Will

Want to write?

Here's what the late Mordecai Richler did:

Mordecai did not go to school to be a writer. He dropped out of university and started writing. He did not go to writers’ retreats. He did not believe writing could be taught—it was learned in the doing. He apprenticed himself by reading writers he admired, gleaning what he could from them, and writing his own stuff. He spent long days at his desk honing his craft, page by page, chapter by chapter. Even into his late sixties he was still writing for eight hours a day, every day.

To be honest, we don't know who this Richler fellow is, but he did more or less what we did.

Our point in denying knowledge of Richler is that one doesn't have to read the classics to write. We didn't, never have, and probably never will. Dickens, all those fancy Russian authors, etc...na. We've never read Moby Dick either. 

When we started  A Line through the Desert we were reading contemporary lit, Nick Hornby, Lisa Jewell*, Richard Russo**, Tom Perotta***.

So don't worry about writers who insist you have to read the classics. For that matter don't worry about writers who tell you you have to do anything. Except write everyday. You have to do that.

*Two man points deducted
**In a century he'll be considered one of the great 21st century American authors
***We recommend Little Children in the strongest possible way