“Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.”
― Jules Renard
This quote cropped up in my random reading this evening, and it struck me negatively for some reason. I couldn't put my finger on it at first, but quickly realized that, beyond simply reducing an entire universe of communication to a selfish world of useless indulgence, it's fundamentally in error.
Writing is almost never formed in a single, glutting, go. It is by nature almost nothing BUT interruption. Few authors, scriptwriters, essayists, working in ficiton or non, in short form, long form, poetry, or even graphic work - nor any other writer - creates an entire piece in one sitting, without revision. Ever. For the sake of the reader, writing almost *must* be interrupted, and for the sake of the author's message, story, issue, interest - likewise. For clarity - interruption. For entertainment - interruption (who can build tension, perfectly, with nary an edit?). For every possible purpose - staying on point, getting the story told well, evoking a setting (fiction or non, we're always *somewhere* when we read) - interruption.
Writing is the art of perfecting your OWN interruptions. Of learning to use them - the down times between having the actual moment to write. Of winnowing inspiration by the process of editing - learning how to use the interruptions in time, the interruption of revision, the interruption of feedback, refining, polishing. Writing is the *cultivation* of interruption, in order to write well, to engage.
Talking without being interrupted is just self indulgence. It isn't writing. Not good writing.
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