Of Writing and Rabbits

Some random musing from me on IM this evening, and with thanks to Naomi Alderman, who first made the magic trick analogy and let me run with it:

Well, and you know, you're right, that writing is something of a magic trick

You're pulling a rabbit out of a hat each time you sit down

And sometimes you know how the trick is done and you already knew you'd put the rabbit there

And sometimes you pull out a squirrel instead and it surprises you as much as anyone

But there's always SOMETHING in the hat, if you go through the motions of pulling something out of it