Sunday, September 20, 2015

Writers Versus People Who Write

Writers are, by nature, curious. They want to know more by day's end than they knew upon waking. They devour trivia the way sponges absorb water; yet they tend to turn trivia into treasures, thanks to their imaginations.

So, what of those people who write, but who do not have sufficient curiosity to explore new things? What about writers who think they are too old to learn new ideas, new technologies, new ways of thinking?

They are people who write, not writers. There's a difference. People who write can, with enough practice, produce tolerable work; at least they can produce work that does not instantly offend all readers. Writers, though, produce wonderful and horrible work, pieces of literature that serve as sandpaper or salve; they tend to offend everyone in some small way.

I'd rather be a writer than a person who writes. I wonder how many writers live in the Village; the number is far, far smaller than the number of people who write.

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