Thought for Today on the Art of Writing ~

"A pretty good way to make a living, you might think ~ to be free to frolic away the afternoons of your life.  But you mustn't be fooled.  Anyone who has ever tried to write knows that you don't just sit down and bang it out.  It is necessary first to seethe and torment yourself.
"Robert Frost may have written many of his poems at single sittings, as he boasted, but weeks of reflection, if not a lifetime, went into them first.  An idea must have a chance to work its way out of the brain and into the viscera before it goes down on the page." ~ C. Lehmann-Haupt, Introduction, Writers in Residence.

~ Glynne Robinson Betts, Writers in Residence, American Authors at Home, The Viking Press, 1981.

Tomorrow:  How do good writers help this process along?