The Writer’s Coin

The latest issue of Publisher’s Weekly has a nifty little piece by Will Leitch on the differences between blogging and writing a book.

Will Leitch is the editor for the hilarious sports blog Deadspin.com, where he writes about 7,000 words a day (ouch!). He’s also the author of several books, including the recently released God Save the Fan.

In the piece he takes aim at the mystique of writing as an art and treats it more as a job, which is what it is to him (at 7,000 words a day, who can blame him?).

He goes on:

You write because that’s your job; you won’t hear a blogger ever say they’re “blocked.” Writer’s block is the luxury of those who have no one expecting to hear from them today.

Clearly, Leitch doesn’t see anything transcendent about the writing experience. He doesn’t see writing as a way to discover things you didn’t know about yourself, about the world, and about life in general. He doesn’t see writing as a creative pursuit that involves all the magic of creating something new that others might enjoy.

To Leitch, “It’s just work.”

Tags: deadspin, difference between blogging and writing, will leitch