A winsome post by William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well, on work and writing for The American Scholar:
I’ve never defined myself as a writer, or, God forbid, an author. I’m a person–someone who goes to work every morning, like the plumber or the television repairman, and who goes home at the end of the day to think about other things. I can’t imagine not going to work as long as I can…
…It may seem perverse that I compare my writing to plumbing, an occupation not regarded as high-end. But to me all work is equally honorable, all crafts an astonishment when they are performed with skill and self-respect. Just as I go to work every day with my tools, which are words, the plumber arrives with his kit of wrenches and washers, and afterward the pipes have been so adroitly fitted together that they don’t leak. I don’t want any of my sentences to leak. The fact that someone can make water come out of a faucet on the 10th floor strikes me as a feat no less remarkable than the construction of a clear declarative sentence.
(via Coudal)
This is actually just so obnoxious.
I think there are reasons to criticize Zinsser. You might object to his comparing writing to manual labour. Or the pretension of comparing himself to craftsmen. Or you might think that his attitude does not reflect the modern experience of many creative people (myself included) who do their ‘work’ outside of the confines of their 9-5 job (and often are not paid for it). But, to say (anonymously) that it is “just so obnoxious” doesn’t really get us very far, does it?
Even though I find some of his stylistic tics irritating, I still find Zinsser’s On Writing Well useful. What I like about it — and this article — is the recognition that creative work is still work — that people find it difficult and have to put effort in to get inspiration. It seems to me that this is not unrelated to Henry Sene Yee describing design as problem solving.