Having a hard time with writer’s block? So did Gustave Flaubert while trying to get his great novel Madame Bovary (Bookshop|Amazon) underway, telling a correspondent: I am finding it hard to get my novel started. I suffer from stylistic abscesses; and sentences keep itching without coming to a head. I am fretting, scratching. What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in! This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “What Heavy Oar The Pen Is, What Strong Current The Ideas”
If you think you have a hard time getting started on a piece of writing, think about Gustave Flaubert, the French novelist. In 1851, he was trying to start Madame Bovary, and he was having a really hard time. And in a letter, he wrote to someone, “I’m finding it hard to get my novel started. I suffer from stylistic abscesses, and sentences keep itching without coming to a head.”
I am fretting, scratching. What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in. What a great way to describe that frustration.
Yeah, but he mixed his metaphors. It goes from skin diseases to rowing. But, you know, I mean, that’s part of it. He’s burdened, you know. It’s going to take him five years to write that novel. And he turned out Bovary, which is an incredible work by any measure and also much talked about in its day.
Indeed. Indeed. I just think about what a great description of that first period of time is when you’re, you know, it’s still a lot of heavy lifting. A lot of heavy lifting.
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