“All I knew then was what I couldn‟t do. All I knew then was what I wasn‟t, and it took me some years to discover what I was. Which was a writer.”
I can relate to this so much. This whole piece I found myself thinking “wow she’s like me!” Her imagery, the way her mind works, her way of writing; how she starts her novels with no idea where the novel is going. I enjoyed this reading a lot. I think her point is that her reason to write is not controlled by her. I believe she is saying her mind that she doesn’t quite understand is the reason she writes. She writes to better understand the way she interrupts things. I too find myself doing this.
When she says, “In short I tried to think. I failed” This is what happens to me when I’m trying to write a research paper or something I have no interest in what so ever. I find myself getting caught up in the words thinking about how dull and bland they are. When I have to write for a class I do just this, I think. Thinking only leads me to failure and un-satisfaction. I find that when I let the words flow then revise what I have written when it is all out onto paper I am most satisfied. This to me is Didion’s point.
Didion is indeed quite visual when she writes.
ReplyDeleteWhat Didion is reflecting on is sometimes called "writing to learn;" that is, we write in order to learn what we have to say. We find our direction through writing. In this sense, writing IS thinking.