Cleopatra

 

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I read an essay today by a great writer I just discovered, Lily King. She talks about the difference between teaching and writing. But I think it applies to any kind of teaching/creating.

She says she loves teaching, but that she “cannot approach any kind of writing with [her] English teacher brain. That’s the brain that wants to analyze, find themes and metaphors and motifs and irony and resonance, to deconstruct and reify and measure authorial distance. That brain expects perfect and immediate cohesion (or deliberate disruption) of all fictional elements. That brain needs to be banished from the process - or at least from writing the first draft.”

“Because that brain cannot create a thing. All it can do is dissect and evaluate and criticize. When you are writing something new, when you are in the blank-page stage, what you need, all you need, is your creative, sensual, wide-open brain. Your creator, not your critic.”

Amen, sister.