Occasionally, I start to think I’ve left the grounds of mediocre and may even be a good writer. Then, I read someone like Steinbeck and understand that I have many decades of mediocrity ahead of me. This is a good thing...:)
Steinbeck is amazing. He would recite his books as he wrote them - he believed that words were meant to be spoken. He wrote for the spoken word rather than the written word. I also saw a few pages of his revisions on one of his books - he revised his "standard" sentences into "colorful" sentences. So his writing was definitely a result of hard work and creativity - and in my mind moves his writings into the realm of true art.
