I know how many drafts it has taken to acquire spontaneity.—Donald M. Murray

Donald M. Murray reviews a book at NHWP’s Writers’ Day, 2006. Photo by Joanna Maznek.

Donald M. Murray wrote a weekly column for The Boston Globe for twenty years. I was lucky to have the chance to get to know him in the last few years of his life. He was a generous teacher who inspired generations of writers, journalists, and writing teachers.

At the 2006 Writers’ Day conference, an annual day of workshops presented by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, which I used to direct, Murray offered a rare glimpse into the process of a working writer by demonstrating, live, how he developed and explored ideas and drafted and revised his columns. Class participants were astounded and delighted to witness his process; they learned how they could write more freely.

His home office was bright and organized, with beautiful wood shelves for his books, papers, and CD collection. Well into his 80s, he wrote on a Mac and filed his column via email.

He collected quotes from other writers, and he followed the wisdom he found in those quotes. He gave me a laminated card, the size of a bumper sticker, that says, “nulla dies sine linea,” a quote from Horace (65-8 BC) that means “never a day without a line.” That was one of his favorite quotes. The reverse side of the laminated card features inspiring quotes from such writers as Flannery O’Connor, E. L. Doctorow, Simone de Beauvoir, Annie Dillard, William Stafford, E. Annie Proulx, and many others. He considered himself a lifelong student of writing, an apprentice to the craft.

The last class Don taught, a six-week workshop, took place in his house. In the thank you letter I wrote to him, I said, “You have told me that you learn so much by teaching. I am touched by your approach, by your ability to be present with your students and your willingness to share your writing process in a deeply genuine way. Your teaching empowers students to value their writing, to honor their insights and observations, and to be led by the process to the discovery and creation of fresh, original writing.”

I feel an affinity with Don’s approach. Like him, I have collected quotes from writers for years and shared them with students and friends and tried to live by their wisdom. I, too, consider myself a lifelong student of writing. Keeping my faith in the writing process, I look to Don as a model of how a column—or a blog—can be done.

• The featured quote in this post, printed in the July/August 2002 newsletter of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, comes from Donald M. Murray’s keynote address at the 2002 Writers’ Day Conference.
• In “Inside the Writing Process with Don Murray” he describes how he wrote his Boston Globe column.
• Read two great articles from journalists he mentored: “The Take and The Give: A Tribute to Don Murray” by Roy Peter Clark and “‘Only Connect’: A Farewell to Don Murray” by Chip Scanlan.
• Here’s Don’s obituary, another homage by Chip Scanlan.
• “Real Writers Don’t Burn Out: Making a Writing Apprenticeship Last a Lifetime,” is Don’s 1995 keynote address to the National Writers Workshop.
• Watch Rebecca Rule’s 2004 interview with Don on NHPTV.

See more quotes about writing here.

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