Reflections of a working writer and reader
It is a delicious thing to write, to be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating. Today, for instance, as man and woman, both lover and mistress, I rode in a forest on autumn afternoon under the yellow leaves, and I was also the horses, the leaves, the wind, the words my people uttered, even the red sun that made them almost close their love-drowned eyes. When I brood over these marvelous pleasures I have enjoyed, I would be tempted to offer God a prayer of thanks if I knew he could hear me. Praised may he be for not creating me a cotton merchant, a vaudevillian, or a wit. Gustave Flaubert
I like the idea that boxers get told to imagine punching a spot behind their opponent’s head, to reach in so far that they can extend the destruction to the back of your mind. It’s the same thing with writers. We want to disturb your imaginative ecstasy with the deepest punch, though the truth is we generally hit air.
Colum McCann
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Hmmm. This is very inspiring not only for writers but also for boxing fans.
Very good analogy. Boxing and writing are indeed similar in that sense. Boxing represents the literal aspect of that concept while writing represents the figurative aspect.
“disturb your imaginative ecstasy with the deepest punch” … I love this.
Never thought of it that way before, but the visualization could help focus my writing.