Stephen Fry Got It Right

When my friend asked me if I wanted to go to ‘An Evening with Stephen Fry’ I was hesitant at first. I didn’t really know much about him, other than his quiz show and various movies here and there like, ‘V for Vendetta’ and ‘Sherlock Holmes’. Checking out the website, I noted in the synopsis for the evening, ‘…hear first hand the ups and downs of Stephen’s… trials and tribulations of his writing and storytelling process…’. And I was sold.

As it was, after three hours of watching and hearing Stephen Fry on stage, I felt incredibly seen. My soul afresh with Stephen’s profound view on his own writing process.

So what was it that Stephen Fry shared?

Well, it wasn’t until the question and answer segment of the evening, where someone from the audience asked, “What is your advice for someone who knows they have a book in them?”

He could have given a short quip of advice anyone could find on Instagram or Pinterest, but as all storytellers do, he shared an experience from his own writing process.

So let me paraphrase since I don’t have the verbatim memory of exactly what he said:

When you have an idea of a book, you pull out your pen, or your laptop, and start writing away. You might get to the end of the first chapter, or perhaps you achieve two or three chapters. But inherently - as all writers do, because I’ve spoken with many writers who all say the same thing - you get stuck in place. And writing becomes incredibly difficult. You just can’t get the words out. You can’t pull sentences together. You begin to doubt this idea, your ability to write, and your own sanity to begin in the first place. Because why?

Because writing is hard. It’s so very, very hard. For new writers, for seasoned veterans. Writing never becomes easy. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? The thing that distinguishes between the writer who finishes a book, and the writer that doesn’t.

A writer that finishes a book, knows that these difficult moments of being unable to write are just phases, they are temporary and they will come whenever the writer sits down and tries to write. And this type of writer knows, that if they just sit with it, and push through, that the end of the novel will eventually come.

So there you have it, the thing that made my eyes prickle in a concert hall of hundreds. “Because writing is hard. It’s so very, very hard.”

How simple it is, how powerful, for someone, even a stranger, to acknowledge that what you’ve been trying to do is hard. To see and articulate the doubts and difficulties you struggle to overcome in silence, by yourself. Thinking at the time, why is this so difficult, or wondering, should I have chosen a different dream to pursue?

Because it is hard! Because it is hard.

Oh my god is it hard.

So as Stephen Fry said that night, if you know someone who is trying to write a novel. Give them a hug…

xo A.R.Willow