The writer is not proud to announce that she is envious of another writer. She found out about the writer she is envious of on the radio one day when she was in the car, waiting at a light. The reviewer called the writer's stories "flashes of brilliance, like short bursts of fire," so she scribbled the name of the writer on the back of a gum wrapper and stuck it in her pocket. Today, she refound it in the pocket of the coat she was wearing that day, a coat she hasn't worn since it turned cold. She took the gum wrapper to the library and walked the stacks until she found the writer's book, squeezed in the cleavage of two mighty novelists. She took the thin book from the shelf and checked it out. Now she is carrying the book around with her, and though she loves the book, it also repulses her because she feels that the writer stole the stories that she would have eventually written but now can not because this writer wrote them first.
Both writers are talented and brilliant.I had the same feeling when I had an idea about painting an artwork on a body person and match it with a huge canvas.Then a famous band had the same idea on their music video. :/ Animo
ReplyDeleteVery funny piece! What writer doesn't feel like that from time to time?
ReplyDeleteyour honest, insightful posts about the writing life get me every single time. the line: "the writer stole the stories that she would have eventually written." great stuff, joanna.
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