{"id":56183,"date":"2025-01-19T06:09:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T11:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/?p=56183"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:28:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:28:55","slug":"eric-emmanuel-schmitts-writing-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/latelier-decriture-deric-emmanuel-schmitt\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c9ric-Emmanuel Schmitt's writing workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other night, I was perusing the pages of the November LIRE (\u201cto read\u201d in French) magazine when I came across an article about a writing workshop by well-known Franco-Belgian novelist \u00c9ric-Emmanuel Schmitt. The author described three types of writers: the one whose mind is faster than the pen, the one whose mind works as fast as the pen, and the one whose pen is faster than the mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What type of writer am I? I often fall asleep with a fabulous idea that I nurture, embellish and tightly hang onto until the next day. If it\u2019s raining when I open my eyes, there\u2019s a good chance my idea has already drowned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since I\u2019m not a writer by trade, my fingers flutter and twirl in all directions; they instinctively grab a few words or a handful of smart sentences, or instead strike out a paragraph. What is this appetite for writing that incessantly torments me, like a waking dream, a great hunger, a banquet among friends? I still don\u2019t know what destiny has in store for me. A nebula of intentions, chimeras and desires swirls inside of me. I strive to do my best in my head, in my heart and with each strike of a finger on the keyboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Confused, my pen advances at a snail\u2019s pace, but never retreats. A topic, an interesting verb and a few exclamatory adjectives suffice to create a living draft. Do I need an expert to evaluate the coherence of my words? I sleep, I dream, I write and the pages come together. The embryo stretches and grows; it\u2019s now ready to tell me something. Exclamation point, semicolon and full stop. Writing is to give birth to a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the interstellar emptiness of my head, I welcome this new life like a mother who sees the face of her newborn for the first time. My work surface becomes a birthing bed, a long, darkened page that I reread and fold. I pray for its being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes the brain of a great author works at the same speed as their pen. Form and function go hand in hand, pushing against and reinforcing each other day after day. It certainly isn\u2019t true in my case, but I still hope. Every morning, my desire to learn to write inflates like an irrepressible dirigible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Returning to our expert, Mr. Schmitt, there are also writers whose pen is faster than the brain. Those who try out words, watch as formulas emerge, step back as entire sentences roar to life or listen to consonants and vowels arguing among themselves. Is my mind still quick, supple and nimble enough to embellish my words? All those years spent making a living immersed in multiple universes have invaded my brain! It\u2019s probably why I can\u2019t even remember the great poems that I once proudly recited as a young scholar. Today, I try to make light of it, I try to write, I shout, I fabricate. One by one, I calculate each comma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whence this stubbornness to constantly reinvent my daily life? Am I ever satisfied? I remember a quote from MOON PALACE by Paul Auster, who passed away in 2024 and whose writing I love: \u201cI began to notice that good things happened to me only when I stopped wishing for them. If that was true, then the reverse was true as well: wishing too much for things would prevent them from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another eminent master (Thomas Bernhard, 1931\u20131989) comforts me. He explains to me that writing isn\u2019t complicated; all you have to do is to bend your head towards the page and let the contents fall out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDaring to write is like catching a moving train without knowing its destination. And yet, the adventure is worth it; I live it daily. Whether you\u2019re passing through a long tunnel, over a bridge suspended between two volcanoes or through a field covered in poppies, you\u2019ll slowly realize that your mind can open windows, knock down doors and learn how to express the best of yourself. A translation of an excerpt from my most recent book entitled L\u2019ORDINAIRE ENDIMANCH\u00c9, published in French in 2023 by LIBRE EXPRESSION.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cora<br>\u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other night, I was perusing the pages of the November LIRE (\u201cto read\u201d in French) magazine when I came across an article about a writing workshop by well-known Franco-Belgian novelist \u00c9ric-Emmanuel Schmitt. The author described three types of writers: the one whose mind is faster than the pen, the one whose mind works as fast as the pen, and the one whose pen is faster than the mind. What type of writer am I? I often fall asleep with a fabulous idea that I nurture, embellish and tightly hang onto until the next day. If it\u2019s raining when I open my eyes, there\u2019s a good chance my idea has already drowned. Since I\u2019m not a writer by trade, my fingers flutter and twirl in all directions; they instinctively grab a few words or a handful of smart sentences, or instead strike out a paragraph. What is this appetite for writing that incessantly torments me, like a waking dream, a great hunger, a banquet among friends? I still don\u2019t know what destiny has in store for me. A nebula of intentions, chimeras and desires swirls inside of me. I strive to do my best in my head, in my heart and with each strike of a finger on the keyboard. Confused, my pen advances at a snail\u2019s pace, but never retreats. A topic, an interesting verb and a few exclamatory adjectives suffice to create a living draft. Do I need an expert to evaluate the coherence of my words? I sleep, I dream, I write and the pages come together. The embryo stretches and grows; it\u2019s now ready to tell me something. Exclamation point, semicolon and full stop. Writing is to give birth to a story. In the interstellar emptiness of my head, I welcome this new life like a\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":414,"featured_media":56186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Un article sur l'atelier d'\u00e9criture d'\u00c9ric-Emmanuel Schmitt inspire Mme Cora \u00e0 r\u00e9fl\u00e9chir \u00e0 sa propre fa\u00e7on d'\u00e9crire.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"class_list":["post-56183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lettre-mme-cora"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/414"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56183"}],"curies":[{"name":"WP","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}