Writer's impatience

Blocked

Alan Garner: “I really get stroppy over that term ‘writer’s block’, I think it’s writer’s impatience. Nobody says ‘hurry up with that book Alan, we want it,’ because I can’t … any more than I would say to a woman three months pregnant ‘come on, we need that fully-formed, full-term baby now!’ It can’t be done. It just can’t be done.”

This quote is from this wonderful radio programme, in which in which Alan and Griselda Garner walk Claire Balding around Alderley Edge and the landscape of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Worth listening to in full.

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I am currently giving birth to a book. And it’s messy. And I’m starting to think that it may be premature. Please excuse the irregularity of these Substack posts while this is happening.