I’ve been writing all day and am quite tired. I get sloppy when I’m tired, the quality filter gets clogged and discarded. I have always felt it takes a great deal of stamina to write. Big brains consume a great deal of energy.
It’s my understanding that humans evolved big brains because they invented the concept of cooked food, which enabled them/us to consume many more calories with a lot less chewing, resulting in a net nutritional gain that spared plenty of calories to grow big smart brains and survive in the wild using wiles instead of speed, strength, and really sharp claws.
Writers tend to be smart, because what is writing but typing out the impulses of our brains? It’s pure brain. Stupid people can write, too, but I’m not talking about them. But brains get tired, like mine is today and my sentences meander and so forth.
But the theme here is how some great writers can write into very old age. Where do they find the stamina? Some pretty frail and sickly authors write robust works well into their 80s. How do they keep their focus, their creativity, their drive?
Sure, it’s really cool that Jamie Moyer could pitch at the major league level at the age of 46. But Will Durant writing major historical tracts into his late 80’s? Updike writing fiction, poetry, criticism, letters to various buddies, into his late 70s. The waifish Joyce Carol Oates speed-writing thunderous prose at 72. To be endowed with such everlasting brains.
I’ll be dribbling into a cup at those ages. Between naps.
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