T.J. Murphy is the editor of The Writer. Formerly the editorial director for the Competitor Group, his feature work has appeared in a number of publications, including Outside, Runner’s World, and Triathlete. He lives in the Boston area with his wife, Gretchen, their two kids, Milo and Maddie.
T.J. Murphy on social media
“E.L. Doctorow said once said that ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard.”
There’s sadly no shortcut to writing something that stands the test of time and has its own life once it has left your fingertips.
“Those of us who are really going to have a hard time with a threat mindset are those who perceive an obstacle or adversity as a threat to their reputation. They don’t want to take risks because they’re worried about their ego.”
Banning took to Twitter, writing, “Only two people came to my author signing yesterday, so I was pretty bummed about it. Especially as 37 people responded ‘going’ to the event. Kind of upset, honestly, and a little embarrassed.” It was some void: In a supercharged example of writers supporting writers, the tweet racked up more than 80,000 likes after sparking the memories of bestselling authors like Margaret Atwood, Jodi Picoult, and Stephen King.