Discipline

Discipline may be the chief ingredient in writing.

Creativity and skill are important, but I believe discipline is even more crucial. A person can be skilled and creative, but the well-formed sentences and creative ideas will never be read if he doesn't have the discipline to wrestle them onto the mat.

A few days ago I purchased a copy of Anthony Trollope's Doctor Thorne and learned more about this remarkable author in an introduction by Elizabeth Bowen. I had always thought of Trollope's full-time work with the post office as filling out mind-numbing forms in some stuffy office. But apparently Trollope spent many years of postal employment riding about the English countryside, determining rural routes by measuring the 14-mile distance a rural letter carrier was expected to walk each day. He frequently began his day with fox-hunting and often stopped to call on local gentry in his red hunting apparel.

Now I understand how fresh air, exercise, and exposure to a wide variety of people and scenes fueled his active imagination. But one still must admit that his example of discipline is unassailable.

Part of Doctor Thorne was written during a difficult Mediterranean crossing, during which Trollope periodically left his manuscript on the dining table while he dashed off to be sick in his stateroom. He managed, however, to complete his prescribed number of pages each day.

I'm trying to decide whether I think he was obessessive or if he's my hero.