"Writers write them for reasons that usually have a little to do with money and not as much to do with masochism as you might think. There is real satisfaction in a story deeply told, a case richly argued, a puzzle meticulously untangled. (Note the tense. When people say they love writing, they usually mean they love having written.)"
"Let’s Ban Books, or at Least Stop Writing Them"
Bill Keller
July 13, 2011
I disagree with Bill Keller's parenthetical observation. Writers often love the finished product, and undoubtedly strive to it, but many, including me, love the process of writing itself. Stanley Fish, another New York Times columnist and professor of many things including English, once wrote how one author recalled during an interview his reason for writing. I just love composing words into sentences, the writer said. And there you have it: the process, rather than only the finished product, drives this man. (Stanley Fish also recently wrote How to Write a Sentence.)
There is a power in a sentence--and power, too, in crafting one. How many writers pen sentences only to strike them and try, try again. How many more are in the throes of writing rather than the relaxed state of completion. So perhaps Bill Keller's observation should be not that real satisfaction exists in a "story deeply told," but rather in the telling.
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