Philip K Dick's dedication to his wife, Anne, in Dick's novel The man in the high castle reads, "To my wife Anne, without whose silence this book never would've been written."
~ JBB
Philip K Dick's dedication to his wife, Anne, in Dick's novel The man in the high castle reads, "To my wife Anne, without whose silence this book never would've been written."
~ JBB
Depends - she could have stayed silent regarding doubts and nagging about his ability to write and have that support them financially?
she could have stayed silent regarding doubts and nagging about his ability to write and have that support them financially?
Really ambiguous, for sure.
~ JBB
Hmm,
assuming he had problems continuing writing after any outside interruption, his wife's silence while he was writing – no word about meal times or sleeping time or anything else – would let him write until he himself was ready for a break.
Or:
Discussing and criticizing his WIP would maybe have caused frustration and finally abandoning the story. So her being silent let him finishing the work.
HM.
I've learned that it's best to never show anyone an incomplete work, as they'll inevitably say "It's nice, but …".
So now, no one sees my work before it's publishable, aside from my editor, who's the one who helps make it publishable.
That's not about relationships, that's about not inviting criticism of an ongoing, incomplete work. Which is why, today's NY Times has a detailed article about how various novelists find their dogs their most creative sources, as they're always there, supportive, yet never critique your works.
And it makes perfect sense, given the overall isolation of fiction writing.
Yeah, apparently that marriage was a knockdown drag out, literally. He had her committed for 2 weeks. It should be noted that at least at one point he was abusing amphetamines and at two times attempted suicide.