Broyard's Either/or Writers

"Either a writer doesn't want to talk about his work, or he talks about it more than you want."
- Anatole Broyard

After completing my first novel, I placed the thick manuscript in a box under a cabinet in my dining room. I was unsure what to do with it. The book-in-a-box seemed foreign in my day job life. It was as though my heart was inside that box and, by opening the lid, someone might see me, see through me, know my passion, and then dismiss me as a dreamer or label my work a cute little hobby. Back then, I would never talk about the book.
My wife likes to host frequent dinner parties, and so it was that she began, only occasionally at first, withdrawing the box, removing the lid, and showing the contents to whomever happened to be sharing our table. The first time she did this, I became an apologist and quickly re-lid and re-hid the box. What could I say? It was a book-in-a-box. It was all about me.

I next became an example of what Anatole Broyard meant in the second part of his quotation about writers. I had to check myself whenever someone asked me about my writing. Rather than engaging in conversation, where my questions would come in a number equal to my answers, I went through a phase of nonstop talking about writing, how wonderful it was, its influence on someone living a day-job life, how light, color, conversation, emotion, eye contact, and a thousand other sensory perceptions revealed to me a richer world, and on-and-on. I could not shut up.

Finally, there came a time when Broyard's "either or" of writers no longer worked for me. It is a time of peace, and it feels like right now.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved