"Life sometimes gets in the way of writing"
About this Quote
The line lands with a shrug that’s also a confession: the obstacle isn’t a lack of imagination, it’s the sheer administrative weight of being alive. Jean M. Auel, whose Clan of the Cave Bear novels are famous not just for narrative sweep but for research density, isn’t romanticizing “writer’s block.” She’s naming a more mundane enemy: groceries, grief, deadlines, caregiving, illness, the inbox - the unglamorous interruptions that don’t look like drama but function like plot sabotage.
The phrasing matters. “Sometimes” is a strategic softener; it’s not self-pity, it’s a permission slip. “Gets in the way” frames writing as a chosen path with detours, not a sacred calling guaranteed uninterrupted access. That’s a quiet rebuke to the myth of the always-on genius and to the cultural expectation that artists should transmute chaos into output on command. Auel’s career - long gaps between installments, the slow burn of historical immersion - makes the line read like a defense of craft over content churn. It’s an argument that time is part of the work, not a failure to work.
There’s subtext, too, about whose “life” counts as a disruption. For many writers, especially women, “life” often means labor that’s socially invisible but time-consuming: family logistics, emotional maintenance, the second shift. Auel’s sentence is understated solidarity. It doesn’t beg for sympathy; it marks a boundary. The work matters, but so does the living that feeds it - even when living steals the hours needed to put it on the page.
The phrasing matters. “Sometimes” is a strategic softener; it’s not self-pity, it’s a permission slip. “Gets in the way” frames writing as a chosen path with detours, not a sacred calling guaranteed uninterrupted access. That’s a quiet rebuke to the myth of the always-on genius and to the cultural expectation that artists should transmute chaos into output on command. Auel’s career - long gaps between installments, the slow burn of historical immersion - makes the line read like a defense of craft over content churn. It’s an argument that time is part of the work, not a failure to work.
There’s subtext, too, about whose “life” counts as a disruption. For many writers, especially women, “life” often means labor that’s socially invisible but time-consuming: family logistics, emotional maintenance, the second shift. Auel’s sentence is understated solidarity. It doesn’t beg for sympathy; it marks a boundary. The work matters, but so does the living that feeds it - even when living steals the hours needed to put it on the page.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|
More Quotes by Jean
Add to List
