Writer at Work: Standing up for Your Writes

“The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.”

C.S. Lewis gave that advice in 1937, in an article titled, “Breaking in Print.” But it didn’t originate with him. He got it from his mentor Mary Heaton Vorse, who seems to be the source of the oft-repeated advice.

You may have heard that advice inits more condensed form, a terse little maxim attributedto writers as varied as Oliver Stone and Stephen King:

“Writing equals ass in chair.”

As with most max...