See Jane Write
Trish posts a bit about Jane Austen’s writing process at her blog, which is about…the writing process. (Go figure.)
I love how Robert Boice opens his book, How Writers Journey From Comfort and Fluency,
It was such an environment–a comfortable home, a fragrant garden, an evening walk with gay sisters, an encouraging word from a father who praised and peddled her manuscripts–that put into Jane Austen’s novels a fresh air of peace, health, and goodwill, and that gives to her unhurried readers a quiet satisfaction hardly to be found in any other novels. She had learned that the day itself is blessing enough.
(Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Napoleon)
And then Boice continues,
When we write with both calm and confidence at hand, we work in an ideal state of motivation, one marked by patience and enthusiasm much like Jane Austen’s. Without this combination, writers too seldom find their work appealing and comforting; instead, they force writing with a hurried pace, a lagging confidence, and a lingering malaise. As a rule, poorly motivated writers remain ambivalent about writing and inconsistent at turning intentions into actions. The result is misery, silence, or both.
I find even this first paragraph a breath of fresh air. I hear endless stories about scrambling writers working their last nerve trying to finish a book, essay, story, or copy project. They talk about sweating blood and they delight in being miserable.
Well, sometimes it is like sweating blood–and deadlines are never fun. But when it’s done, it’s wonderful. However, we do like to think about Jane Austen enjoying her writing process. Her carefully prepared paper, her writing desk, the other ladies of the house handling the domestic chores so she has the freedom to write, listening for the squeaky door that announced a visitor. How lovely and peaceful.
