IT'S ABOUT TIME I WROTE A BOOK

IT'S ABOUT TIME I WROTE A BOOK

Judging from recent writings, it seems I've developed the capacity for
sustained clarity and analytical depth in my prose. The book should be
written, even if I decide to burn it afterwards: if nothing else, the
experience will improve my skills immensely.

In a collection of letters titled "Advice to a Young
Critic", Bernard Shaw suggests to many of his apprentices that they write books,
even if these turn out to be unpublishable, because doing is the best way of
learning. Shaw himself wrote 5 novels in his early twenties, all of
them rejected by publishers. This hard work did not go to waste: from this
experience he developed his engaging style, sharpening his wit and getting
himself adjusted to the many rigors of a writing career. Most
importantly, writing book after book was a way of developing his thought.
H.L. Mencken wrote his first book when he was 25 years old (incidentally, the book was
titled Shaw's Plays). F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his first novel at about the
same age.

Of course, as George Orwell put it, "writing a book is a horrible,
exhausting struggle...one would never undertake such a thing if one were not
driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand." I believe
I may be possessed by just such a demon. I won't say what the book is about,
but I will say that I've already drawn up a general outline and started the
preliminary research for the first chapter.