I can’t believe I’ve been writing this column for two and a half years, and still I have not explained why I named it “Onward and Upward.”
“Onward and Upward” is the title of a gardening book by Katherine White (1892 -1977), the founding editor of The New Yorker. She wrote it in her old age.
“Writing, for her, was an agonizing ordeal,” recounts her husband after her death. He adds: “Her act of composition often achieved the turbulence of a shoot-out. The editor in her fought the writer every inch of the way; the struggle was felt all through the house. She would write eight or ten words, then draw her gun and shoot them down. This made for slow and torturous going. It was simple warfare – the editor ready to nip the writer before she committed all the sins and errors the editor clearly foresaw. Occasionally, I ribbed her about the pain she inflicted on herself. ‘Just go ahead and write,’ I said. ‘Edit it afterwards – there’s plenty of time.’ My advice never had any effect on her; she fought herself with vigour and conviction from the first sentence to the last. I worried about her health, which was not good.”
I find writing an agonizing ordeal too, and I like this snapshot of White’s daily grind at her desk because it allows me to give myself this pep talk: “If people of her caliber struggle so immensely, it’s only natural that someone like you would have to do so too.” This new-found awareness is enough to keep me going.
By calling my column “Onward and Upward,”, I’m therefore exhorting not so much my readers as myself to aim higher and write better.
Michelle Ng
英國牛津大學畢業，前《蘋果日報》和《眾新聞》專欄作家，現在身在楓葉國，心繫中國大陸和香港。
聯絡方式： michelleng.coach@proton.me
個人網站： https://michellengwritings.com
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