In regard to the work habits of professional authors, Robertson Davies insisted that there are just two kinds of writers, "gushers" and "tricklers." Take a moment to consider which category you fall into.
[James] Thurber was a gusher; for one story which was 20,000 words when finished, he wrote a total of 240,000, and fifteen different versions. It is interesting that the torrential Thurber is the one who talked most about that dread of all writers - drying up. . . . Frank O'Connor was also a gusher; he rewrote some of his stories even after they had been published.Click on "comments" to let us know whether you think of yourself as a gusher or a trickler--and if you're content to be one or the other.
The tricklers may be represented by William Styron, who says: ''I can't turn out slews of stuff each day. I wish I could. I seem to have some neurotic need to perfect each paragraph--each sentence, even--as I go along.'' Dorothy Parker, also a trickler, said: ''I can't write five words but I change seven!''
The industry of the gushers commands respect; Joyce Cary, Frank O'Connor, and [Truman] Capote--we see them writing and revising, rejecting pages by the handful, and finally piecing their work together from the mass. But the tricklers have an agony of their own; they cannot continue until the last line written is as right as they can make it. Both methods seem to take about an equal amount of time.
(Robertson Davies, A Voice from the Attic: Essays on the Art of Reading, rev. ed. Penguin, 1990)
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Comments
I’m a trickler AND a gusher–the worst of both worlds. I agonize over every word in every sentence. Then 9 times out of 10 I end up throwing the sentence away. And then I try it again and again and again . . .
Re the above comment; doesn’t that make you a quintessential trickler? Where does the gusher figure in here?
I myself am a trickler. But every once in awhile I’ll have an inspiration to handwrite the ideas as they stream through my head- a mini-gush, if you will. Then, I put those ideas through the meat grinder when I take them to the keyboard!
I am a trickler. I agonize over every word, sentence and paragraph!
Such a gusher! I go on and on and on, and my students tell me I “overexplain” things, but I love words and tend to use them too much! I have to edit even an email so that I’m not rambling as I am in danger of doing here….
On paper you could call me a gusher. I can start writing and correct the mistakes when I go over the draft.
On the keyboard it is different. I guess that I am a trickler. I am going back and correcting my spelling, spacing and so on as I write.
When I finish the final copy, on paper or PC, I reread it from beginning to end and then proof read it to double check for mistakes.
I’m such a trickler that if i can’t something down in my mind that satisfies me I won’t write it at all. Once I do write though I don’t like to do revisions. I am less satisfied with them most of the time and end up with almost all of my first drafts intact. I always admire writers who can keep churning out material and wish that I could do that.
It’s the same with new language production! There are two main groups: the ones who talk much but make a lot of mistakes, and the ones who talk seldom but make almost no mistakes.
I’d like to be a tickler. Someone who can grab the reader by the lapel and make them want to read more.
I’ve tried both and am never satisfied. By the time I’ve finished the first paragraph, I’m already revising the first sentence(s). I think I’m more in love with the act of writing, watching the words take shape on the page and hearing the pen scratching than anything else.
I guess I’m a tricker. Although I will write furiously for ten minutes, I always end up revising the first paragraph and then rewriting the whole thing. I’ve tried gushing, but just can’t keep going back to rewrite. I do the same thing with e-mails.
Both types seem to me to be Obsessive Compulsive, as me I am neither.