Gah! Yet more procrastination and faffery on my part as I struggle with my invisible woman story. (She's not actually invisible.) I know the end, I have written the larger part of it, but to get to the end there is a gap. A gap I have wrestled with for a few days now. Grrr to the gap, bad gap!
Now, rubbishly, I fill the gap with, well, filler. And it shows. Argh. I feel that if I can just complete it and leave it for a week and then return to it, suddenly it will be clear what needs doing as the magic of story writing happens when I don't look.
So, best grind on then.
5 weeks ago
3 comments:
i'm still writing something myself, and i found that the policy of leaving it completely alone and then coming back to it was probably the most valuable part of the whole process. I'd also filled in with filler in order to cross to the other side of a particular section and get on with the next bit i was certain about, and i think you're right in what you say..it happens when you aren't looking or actively working on it.....the composer John Cage used to adopt a similar policy in writing music quoting the zen koan : "Taking a nap I pound the rice"
Sometimes it was weeks before i looked again, and when i did it was blindingly obvious what to do...and that usually, well always in fact, meant taking stuff out, but i couldn't clearly see what until i'd had a miniature hoilday from the whole thing. So i'm a big believer in the practice of walking away from it. But it's kind of hard to do sometimes, cause you really want to get on with it.....
Looking forward to reading it when it's done, anyway......
ma
(Hurrah, the commment worked. How lovely to see you here on my self indulgant booky/writery/bloggy.)
It is frustrating though when I have a deadline to have to abandon it. It was/is the only way though otherwise what comes out is just forced garbage. I am hoping to resume work on it next week, and submit it at the end of the week. Fingers crossed etcetera. In order to do it though I have junked the idea of meeting another deadline, which is annoying but there is no point at all in writing for the sake of it.
ah well, i've never had the misfortune to have to write to a deadline....scary...i think it would paralyse my entire physiology....i've no idea how anyone does it, in fact....the nearest equivalent i can think of is that i've had to make recordings on a limited time/budget before...and they've always come out with mistakes and things i regret later....
art and commerce really don't mix..it's a shame they've become so inextricable in our eccentric culture
ma
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