Quote of the Week...from Isaac Asimov

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.                     --Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov (1920-92) was a very prolific writer, not only with his more recognized accomplishments in science fiction, but also with mystery fiction and non-fiction...the latter widely ranging from science to history to the Bible.  He wrote on a fanatical level and was also an accomplished speed typist, something that I am not, my past efforts with the excellent Mavis Beacon program notwithstanding.  As for the above quote, let me first say that it doesn't mean that Asimov wrote down everything he thought...I certainly wouldn't either, for some thoughts are better left guarded.  But the act of writing necessarily demands a direct bond between one's thought processes and what gets presented on the screen (or paper).  And this, I believe, also means that since I tend to think in plain, not overly flowery or literary ornate, terms, my writing will also...like that of Asimov...present itself in that simple, plain language.  He always maintained this style of writing no matter what genre he was producing...makes it a lot easier for the reader to understand and relate, I assure you of that!  As a result I am confident that I can pick up any book by Isaac Asimov...from fiction to Shakespeare to physics...and comprehend just about everything I read, no matter how unfamiliar I am with the subject material.  I also understand that there are certain writers who appeared to deliberately obfuscate their writing and made following it an exercise in decryption more than reading...James Joyce to me is a prime example, but not the only one.  Yet his contemporary, Ernest Hemingway, on the other hand, wrote in plain, terse language...and that style contributed to his stories' effectiveness by strengthening that bond between writer and reader, emulating how people generally think.  While not claiming to be a Hemingway or Asimov, I follow their examples in writing this blog...