1700 Writers om Writing. Writing doesn't require drive. le like saying a chicken has to have drive to lay an egg. Jobn Upaike MARGARET ATWooD Why Do You Write? Ys lento write by reading and writing, writing and reading Asa eaies aquired through the apprentice system: but yor choeee sg Sometimes theyre alive sometines doe ‘Asa vocation, it inoles the laying on of hands. You recive our vocation sadn yout urn you mast passiton Perhaps you wll dots aly non our work pethapsin ether was Ether oap youre partofacemere ee ommanity of writers, che community of eryeliog thet ae rough time othe Beginning othumea soc forthe arcu haman soy fo which you yousel belong Sometimes youl fel youre speaking for ig sometines hee es one unjust formagainsito for that other community che ene gpprosed the exploited, the viedeoe Ether way Hepes a Setntens:inatber counties perhaps Taal Durcrehes aelae ee ray othe group whichis fing the boos and thee oil es hand bot rand agains coellout shit op ortossy whats ence 4259 or tos i diferent way. Or to save hem, Th llfeas oer es butifyou succumb co is tmptations youll entep ewe Telwhatis yours woel. Lec other cll whar shen TONI CADE BAMBARA, What Is Ie I Think I'm Doing Anyhow? When replay the tapes on ilein ny head apes of speeches 've given at wie ing confetences over the year, linvarably ear mycltsying ere a anyother cultural works ike any other member othecommaurciy eho Ly © ue bess sil inthe service ofthe community” Some pone ay ‘hea resumed south, my pictured the pape prompend socelecnt ee comeviss “Youa writer? Whar allyou writ Beore could cere logue, one old gent interrupted with-"Ya know Mis Mavrteee ae te She needa writer o help her send ofa leter wher gandoon oe {began acareer as the neighborhood seribe-lctersrcaanes ering testo the crac chiefabout the promised stop sign, plate te, angry Ite to the principal about that confers fag Resets fron of the schoo, contracts co canaer a tuck from sellse Bee While my efforts have been graciously appreciated In the fans or se orato damplings et teas, hair raiding, andthe he, chen eh eek ‘oom forimprovement=“Por awrite, honey youve oc a higher bo aoe Didn'echey teach penmanshipat that college Anotherevacpig ees 1a Te Western Hr Wk Vl. Used bane Sermburg(1993) 2, From The Writer er ed byhinerSrnberg 90, (19. ‘he aaa words setcing things in motion. Whar goes around, comes around, as the elders say Iewill be apleasure to get back to the shorts; they allow me to share, Imuch prefer to haul around story collections o prisons, schools, senior citizen cen. ters, and rallies and then select from the “mens” something that suits the ‘moment and is all of a piece. But the novel's pull is powerful. And since the breakthrough achieved in the sixties by the Neo-Black Ares Movement? the possiblities are stunning. Characters chat have been waiting in the wings for generations, characters thae did not fit into the roster of stereo. types, can now be brought down ceneer stage. Now that I/we have located our audience, we are free to explore the limits of language. Now that Ameri= can history, American literature, the Ametican experience is being redefined by so many communities, the genze too will undergo changes. Sl came to the novel witha sense that everythingis possible. And I'm attempting to blue. print for myself the merger of these two camps the politcal and the spit tual, The possiblities of healing that spit are exciting. The implications of actually yoking those energies and of fusing that power quite take my breath RICHARD BAUSCH Letter to.a Young Writer While there are of course thousands of reasons why people begin to write— some of them rather shabby ones, too~there usually is only one reason why they continue: and thar is that the work has become necessary. We are habit. forming creatures, and this work is very habit forming ifone has any talent at all. OF course, you don't know when you begin if you really have any talent, You hope you do; perhaps you even suspect that you do. Sometimes you go bback and forch, believing on some days, and disbelieving on others. Mostly you believe the last thing you read or heard concerning the work, and you probably tend to listen co the negative chings more; the last negative thing you heard has sunk deeper into you and has lasted a longer time than any positive comment, Painful as thisis, itis also perfectly normal. My best advice has nothing to do with technique, or aesthetics ot the crate itself, realy. It is more to do with training oneself to be shrewd. To live intel. ligently where the work is concerned: as I have said many times in classes, \wricing is not an indulgence; the indulgences are what you give up to write You don't go to as many parties, you don't watch as much television, you don'e listen to as much music. You make decisions in light of what you have to do in a given day. How much you get done depends in large part not on your talent—which is whatever itis, and is mostly constant—but on your own attitude aboue what you are doing, So. 2 Movement ofthe mi-160sthvough he acy 1970s by groups of ates nd writers in New Yor, Ghieago, Deo, and Caloris By Area. Tae mowemest prom Aftcem Aeon poled engagemens culral pide, and mpontemans ashy parol tioentnne