In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby had a seizure which left him unable to move any part of his body except his left eyelid. He wrote a book about the experience, called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
He wrote a book. With his eyelid.
Bauby had help. Claude Mendibil sat in front of him, reciting the alphabet over and over. Bauby winked at her every time she reached the letter he wanted, and she wrote it down.
If you’ve heard of Bauby before, someone was probably trying to motivate you. “If he could write a book, so can you!” That’s the moral that typically comes pre-packaged with this story. I have a different take. I haven’t read the book, but I assume it’s a masterclass in economy. No need to wink out all the letters for “marmalade” when “jam” would do.
This is something we can all aspire to. Not being paralysed, obviously – my friends and I watched a film about Bauby in 2007, and each of us has been terrified of locked-in syndrome ever since – but getting as much impact out of as few words as you can. Imagine you had to wink out every letter. Would you still include that adverb? You should write like this not because writing is as slow and difficult for you as it was for Bauby (it surely isn’t) but because your readers’ time is precious. They’re not reading your story because they have nothing else to do. It’s 2022. They have plenty of other ways to fill their time. They’ve chosen to read your work because it’s more interesting than Tiktok, and they will get out their phone the second you stop delivering.
This leads me to another rarely-explored lesson. Here’s my controversial (bordering on offensive) take: maybe Bauby’s condition made it easier to write the book? He had literally nothing else to do. It wasn’t like he could decide to wash the windows instead.
Writing is fun, and worthwhile. But it’s also hard, and sometimes boring. There will always be easier ways to fill your time. If you’re going to write anything worth reading, you need to reject them. Maybe it would help to pretend you’re paralysed. Act like you have no choice but to do this.
Because you probably don’t. I’ve had various other jobs over the years. Some of them were easier. Most of them were more profitable. But if you’re a writer, it’s existentially uncomfortable, or even painful, to do anything else. If you don’t write now, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.
So here’s your challenge for the day. Type a message in the comments (perhaps a suggestion for the content of my future blog posts). But don’t use your fingers. Tap the keyboard with a pen instead. One letter at a time, like Bauby’s winks. (If you’re using a phone rather than a computer, tap the on-screen keyboard with your pinkie instead of your thumbs.) Notice how much more carefully you choose your words when writing is suddenly hard – then try to take that care into your day’s writing.
0 Comments