Dear Geist,

How can a greenhorn fiction writer, working alone most of the time, know when the erasures and crossings-out and returns to the original wording are mostly spinning wheels and precious little actual writing?

—Lorraine H, Cyberspace

Dear Lorraine,

The “precious little actual writing,” and the work you put in to get that bit of writing, are in fact some of the most important writing work you will do. By now you’ve discovered that some passages or pages appear as if by magic, and others seem to come with mean spirits that taunt you at the writing desk, enjoying the spectacle of your frustration. We don’t know any good writers who are free of these torments. When the work seems to get easier, or at least familiar, the writer plunges into lesser-known territory and starts again.

Here is the writer Philip Pullman, who writes reassuringly of writing, and of struggling to put the camera in the right place: “The notebooks of great writers and composers are full of hesitations and mistakes and crossings-out; perhaps the real difference is that they keep on until they’ve found the best place to put the camera.”

So pat yourself on the back! And keep writing.

—The Editors