That author’s cruelty wounded Faulkner so deeply he stopped writing. There is never a reason for sadism in teaching a creative art. Obviously, this was thoroughly reprehensible behavior from the famous author. He talked about the writing class he took with a famous author who ridiculed his work - and his personality - and even wrote obscenities in the margins of his manuscript. In fact, it sometimes might be better to have a flesh wound.” He talked about the psychological wound that’s inflicted when someone you trust says harsth, negative things about your creative work.Īs Grant Faulkner wrote: “We put our souls, the meaning of our lives, into the things we create, whether they are large or small works, and when the world rebuffs us, or is outright hostile, the pain is such that it might as well be a flesh wound. I had what’s called a “creativity wound.” That’s a term I first saw in a piece by Grant Faulkner on Jane Friedman’s blog in 2018. So where did my feeling of unworthiness come from? I felt unworthy of calling myself a “real writer.” (BWT, if you write and you’re not a wooden puppet carved by an old Italian guy named Gepetto, you’re a real writer.

That was because directors and actors were waiting for them, so I had deadlines

The only things I finished were a few plays. I always stopped after the first 40 pages or so. I was incapable of writing a whole novel. If I got to the point where I could write “the end” on a piece, I’d bury it in a drawer. Early in my writing career, I wrote in secret - and hardly ever finished anything.

Wounds of passion a writing life