Don didn't know it all

Donald Murray, teacher and mentor to two generations of writers at the University of New Hampshire, was full of advice. One of his favourite tips was that freelance writers should acquire a skill that has nothing to do with writing and that takes little creative power. He was not a friend of the starving artists school of thought, believing that want saps creativity rather than motivating it.

Being smartasses of a certain generation, we were inclined to ask if that was why he had made his living as a reporter, then an editor talented enough to get a Pulitzer, then a teacher of writing. His calm answer was that if he had it to do over again, he would follow his own advice. He recommended piano tuning as an occupation especially suited to writers. The schedule was irregular, he said, but the work fairly steady and well-paid. It put one in touch with another sort of creative people as well.

I've been getting progressively deeper into my own version of this, and I'm not sure the advice was so good. The schedule is erratic, not irregular. The work seems prone to dwindling, and one's human contacts are more exacting than creative. And alas, a skill which looked appealing at the outset shows signs of being, well, humdrum.

Possibly I chose poorly. The result is that it is rather hard to start the engine at the end of the day, even when one's mind is churning with ideas. This too, presumably, shall pass, but I think it may be better to do as Don did, not as he said. Writing begets writing.