What are you writing? by Clifford Thurlow

writer Atril press — “what are you writing, and it’s like asking a fish in which direction it’s swimming?”
https://argoul.com/2011/06/14/apprendre-a-bien-ecrire/

When someone says: what are you writing? It sounds to my ears as if they’re saying: I’m going to set fire to your house. Or I’m going to kill your dog. And I don’t even have a dog.

Asking a writer what they are writing is like asking a philosopher what they are thinking? Or a firefighter what fires he’s been fighting? Then, you wouldn’t ask a firefighter that. You’d ask: put out any interesting fires lately? To which he replies: Yes, I just carried a little girl out of a blazing building. That’s heroic. That’s awesome.

You ask the writer: what are you writing, and it’s like asking a fish in which direction it’s swimming?

Writers don’t always know what they are writing. The meaning evolves in the writing. Writers sense that there’s a crack in the universe and feel a need to fill the vacuum. Rightly or naively, writers see themselves as society’s conscience, a safety valve. Writers write because they want to save mankind.

From this perspective, all writing is political. If the plot is a mother murdering a child abuser, or a mean boss sacking a pregnant employee, or a group of wheelchair vets occupying a recruitment office, the drama will be layered in social comment. Writers are worker ants laboring for the good of the nest: the planet we all share.

From now on, when friends ask what are you writing, I’m going to tell them I’m working on a story about how vast numbers of people on every continent woke up one morning after having the same dream about people working together to save the orangutans, the last Indian tigers, the elephants still roaming free on the African veldt. As they set out to make the dream reality, they lost their feelings of apathy, division and boredom. They looked into each other’s eyes and began to see a way to bring about a happier, more equitable future for everyone.

I am not going to actually write that story, so do feel free to take the plot, turn it into a best-seller and donate your millions to the orangutans.

Clifford Thurlow Atril press — Clifford Thurlow was born in London and started work as a junior reporter on a local newspaper aged 18. He has travelled extensively through Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. He worked as the editor of the Athens News in Greece, managed a travelling dolphin show in Spain and studied Buddhism in India, leading to the publication of his first book, Stories from Beyond the Clouds, an anthology of Tibetan folk stories.
He met actress Carol White in Hollywood and wrote her memoirs, Carol Comes Home. It was the first of a dozen books as a ghostwriter, including the Sunday Times bestseller Today I’m Alice – the story of multiple personality disorder survivor Alice Jamieson. His latest book, “How to Rob the Bank of England”, was published in September 2024.
www.cliffordthurlow.com

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