I think the programme was a repeat and I believe that I’d heard it before but I still listened with attention. John Lloyd hosted it, explaining how he and Douglas Adams had been flatmates and close friends, even writing partners. Adams’ struggles with the writing process was the main gist of the piece. And how he struggled – spending a year on the first paragraph, as Lloyd said, many times.
Does it help to hear such stories? I do not place myself in his league (though I am not a fan of his genre I can appreciate it’s wit and newness). But whether a genius or a tryer – learning how to deal with the process is the same. The fears are the same. As are the internal pressures. For me it is the discovery that actually I am talentless, a fake, an artist/writer manqué. One could say so what, if that is the case? And that all I have to do is remove the audience, the panel of judges and do it for myself.
But they never truly disappear, do they?
The moon is surely full now. And still so huge. A wonder.
