Did you know that John Steinbeck kept a journal while writing East of Eden and that it is available in book form? For writers who struggle with such things as self-doubt, writer’s block, and guilt, John Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel is balm to a wound.
He wrote it in the form of letters to his editor at Viking Press, calling it his way of getting his “mental arm in shape to pitch a good game.” In it, he reveals his thoughts as he struggles with plot, characterization, symbolism, and description, as well as how to mesh writing with his “outside” world.
One of Steinbeck’s first journal entries deals with the guilt issue by stating, “This is a kind of necessary selfishness–otherwise
books do not get written.” I’m sure all writers can identify with that. As can their families.
There are hundreds of quotable sayings in Steinbeck’s journal that will hit home to the writer. Following are ten I plucked out of the first twenty-three pages.
- “And if he is a writer wise enough to know it can’t be done, then he is not a writer at all.”
- “Whether I am good enough or gifted enough remains to be seen.”
- “Now that I have everything, we shall see whether I have anything.” (In reference to his new work room.)
- “I can’t think of anything else necessary to a writer except a story and the will and the ability to tell it.”
- “I want to go through it before it is typed and take out even the few adjectives I have let slip in.”
- “I suffer as always from the fear of putting down the first line.”
- “And one thing we have lost–the courage to make new words or combinations.”
- “Even if I knew nothing would emerge from this book I would still write it.”
- “I can hear that in my ears and see it with my eyes and there is not reason why my pencil should not write it.”
- “A story has a life of its own. It must be allowed to take its own pace. It can’t be pushed too much.”
See what I mean?
Non writers can read Journal of a Novel with equal pleasure (especially along side
East of Eden), just to see how a writer’s mind works while he creates his fictional world.
I’m on this book’s second reading and am enjoying it even more than the first.
Happy reading.
For reviews on Journal Of A Novel, go to Goodreads.
