We
write with two minds.
One mind is our subconscious – it’s the motor,
burning hot and nasty as it winnows our life experiences and fever dreams to
create new worlds. Call it the muse, or,
as Stephen King does, the guys in the basement.
I think of my subconscious as Ernie from Sesame Street, and I am sure my wife is surprised to hear that.
(INSERT SARCASTIC MUSICAL CUE HERE.)
The
other mind moves the pen, provides the ass-in-chair discipline, weighs grammar
rules and vocabulary, and remembers to hit Control-S every couple of pages. We’ll call him Bert. (Bert, after all, is
likely the one who pays the bills on that basement bachelor pad at 123 Sesame
Street. Sans Bert, I think Ernie would
be a homeless drunk. With Bert, I
suspect, he’s a simple closet boozer, but we never see that on camera.)
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| Ernie and Bert cosplayers, courtesy of Io9.com |
