There’s a television commercial, I believe it’s for E-trade, that talks about how nobody wants to be an ordinary…fill in the blank. Supposedly we aspire to be better. Nobody wants to be an ordinary athlete, nobody wants to be an ordinary investor. A photo of Hemingway flashes across the screen and it says “nobody wants to be an ordinary writer”. That made me pause. I wasn’t so sure about that.
You see, I am struck by how often I hear from writers who want to know if their current project is worth the effort. Basically they want to know if they can sell it. There’s no passion behind their idea. No writing for the love of writing. They’re willing to abandon an idea based on my say so or someone else’s. Somehow I don’t think John Steinbeck, when he was writing East of Eden went around asking anyone if it was worth the effort. In fact, I am inspired by what a reviewer said of that novel when it was published. “A novel planned on the grandest possible scale…One of those occasions when a writer has aimed high and then summoned every ounce of energy, talent, seriousness, and passion of which he was...