Pleasure of Writing

Quote for the Week

In her book of essays, Personal Pleasures, published in 1936, Rose Macaulay wrote: To move among this bright, strange, often fabulous herd of beings, to summon them at my will, to fasten them on to paper like flies, that they may decorate it, this is the pleasure of writing.

You may never have heard of Emilie Rose Macaulay who was born in 1881 and died in 1958. Shortly before she died, she was named a Dame of the British Empire. Emilie, as she was commonly called, was an English novelist who published more than 30 books, most of them novels. The most highly regarded of her novels was The Towers of Trebizond, published two years before her death.

She's remembered by critics and scholars because she was one of the few "significant English novelists of the last century to identify herself as a Christian and to use Christian themes in her writing." Her writing was described as having a mystical sense and a richness.

I think that richness of expression is plainly evident in her comment, quoted above, about one of the main pleasures of writing - creating fictional characters.

I guess all writers feel as if the people we create are members of a fabulous herd of beings, created by our fancy to intrigue and entertain us.

Takeaway Truth

To you, what is the pleasure you find in writing? Discover this and it will sustain you in the face of disappointment and rejection.