Seat of Your Feet

"The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair."
- Mary Heaton Vorse

Writing quotations reveal writers. While most writers understand and share certain truths about writing--like the need to write every day--some come up with clever little thoughts that I do not share. Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair? That's funny, but it's also irrelevant. I write on my feet.

My son built a stand-up desk for me after I complained that chair writing was taking my strength. With muscles, it's use them or lose them and, after only four years of writing every day, sitting for hours in front of a keyboard, out of the elements, indoors, warm, soft, and sedate, I discovered chair writing is unhealthy writing.

Maybe it would be different if I could still run. Between writing, I would go out, get my legs working, arms pumping, lungs gasping, and blood gushing. That would be something! Then I could safely sit for hours and write. I could laugh out loud at Mary Heaton Vorse's little quotation. As it is, I adapted her words to my situation.

The art of writing, then, is the art of applying the seat of the feet to the head of the floor.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved