“I would write a book – if only I had the time”

By Dennis Mellersh

One of the common misconceptions of people not familiar with writing is that it is an inborn ability, and that to write a book, for example, you just have to have some time available, tap into the talent, and then start to write.

However, as someone who is in the process of becoming a writer, and doing the hard work of learning to write, you know how difficult it is
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People who think that they would write, if only they could “find the time” would not likely say that they would do the electrical installations in an office building; or build a three-story brick house; or do all the plumbing in their house – if they could just take time off from their busy schedules.

Even professional people with significant technical educational backgrounds have this peculiar notion that they could simply tap their brains and a stream of novels, short stories, or poems would then pour out with ease onto the page.

Yet, a professional writer would never say words to the effect, “Yes, I’ve been thinking that when I have the time between novels, I think I will do some heart surgery.”

The prolific writer Harlan Ellison commented on this oddity of perception:
“People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.”

Once you progress in your writing and perhaps have had some of your work published, you may wish to disabuse your friends and acquaintances of this popular myth.

Or instead, you might want to take the advice of Ernest Hemingway: “It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.”