Wednesday Writer’s Workshop: Writing as a Relationship

“Patricia Highsmith….lost her form. The problem wasn’t the supposed confines of crime writing, but her increasing refusal–in love and in work–to let a relationship happen. And art is always about relationship–to the material, to the self, and to the world in all its chaos and intrusion, its terror and its glory.”

–Jeanette Winterson, review of Patricia Highsmith biography in the New York Times Book Review, 12/20/09

I always mean to write things down, to cut out great quotes that spark something in me when I’m reading. Usually my intentions come to naught. However, this quote was like a stiff uppercut to my jaw! To say it is provocative for a writer, this writer, is an understatement.

Here’s what I’m wondering: is Winterson correct about Highsmith’s career or has the reviewer just found an interesting trope?  I don’t know Highsmith’s writing well enough to judge.  Do you?

If our ability to construct a successful piece of prose is a function of our ability to maintain a successful relationship, what does that say about those of us limping along with failed relationships?

Can you relate your own relationship history to your writing history?  Are projects ever like lovers that have stayed around too long?  Do you give up too easily on a project or a relationship that isn’t working because life shouldn’t be so hard?

Did Winterson’s quote resonate for you?  Talk to me….

Tagged as: midlife relationships, Writers Workshop, writing

  • Nellith

    … it used to be pen paused over the paper as I sit to think now… it is finger hesitated over the key board… Hay! Why does gender get the credit in how a friendship is defined? We all have secret and wonderful friendships that give us comfort and lasting warmth…a hot water bottle, glass of amber coloured butterscotch schnapps, a worn sweater, or an amassed collection of words. I need to let the words flow from my fingers and then in reading them back they give enlightenment, comfort, or yes even sometimes shame. I save them like photos in a file so they’re there to can go back to for reflection. Savor them again and develop new word string pearls to decorate the dynamic person that I am….ME. Please do not mock my friend “words” as they like friends, seem to hide, be coy , slightly naughty, very proper, trite and yes efficient but alway pleasurable and reliable to a fault. Don’t forget haunting, a few words and you don’t sleep for days or you see something and immediately see a word picture in your mind… like the “Quintets” music wafted out the window like a melodic kiss meeting the pinky sunrise”
    ‘Oops door bell gotta run to fleshly friends Tah Rah!

  • http://midlifebloggers.com byjane

    Joanna–
    It’s interesting that you can parallel your writing with your “friend” relationships. I think there is something in that. I’m waiting for someone to comment with a list of successful writers who sucked at relationships. I keep coming up with men–Steinbeck, for example–so I wonder if this applies to female writers only. Nah, that won’t work either: the Brontes and Austen come to mind. I’m waiting for the Duchess to weigh in….

  • http://www.thefiftyfactor.com Joanna Jenkins

    I don’t know Patricia Highsmith’s work enough to comment on the quote other then to say I’m pretty sure she cried herself to sleep after that review.

    Relationships and writing, hmmm. For me it’s more about “friend” relationships versus a “partner” relationship. I have friends that I keep meaning to get together with but never do– friends I engage with all the time– and friends that I see maybe once a months. That pretty much sums up the writing projects in my que.

    I hadn’t thought of writing as a relationship but it makes a lot of sense. Each project is a different relationship– some are easier to deal with than others.

    Thanks Jane!
    Happy New Year

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