From: Charles Roghair (ctr@pacificpartssales.com)
Date: Thu Aug 26 2004 - 06:50:06 BST
On Aug 25, 2004, at 2:31 PM, MarshaV wrote:
> There are, though, those moments when I can't seem to get out of my
> own way. It is then when I must put the brush down. It's hard to
> know when enough is enough.
>
> If everyone made art, I think this would be a happier world.
>
> We can praise this experience forever, but I think we all must admit
> there are moments when we go from peaks to valley. What's the hard
> part? Platt gets disappointed when his paintings don't match his
> expectation. I suppose I can get down when I think 'Why bother? Who
> differece? Who cares?'. That's a different kind of disappointment.
Marsha:
Right on.
Some of my scariest valleys are run-on sentences (some of my valleys,
they are numerous), which is probably obvious, but especially grating
during the editing process. I'm re-reading ZMM currently and writing
daily which is normal, but I recently picked through some undergrad
notes from a fondly remembered course in which the instructor advised
the class that if we were to take anything, let it be the following:
When you're ready to edit any piece of writing, select your favorite
sentence, chunk of dialogue, clever turn-of-a-phrase, etc. and omit it
from the piece. Difficult to do, but a valuable lesson learned.
I realize now that instead of spending days trying to make something
work that is beyond my ability, I need to just let it go. Sometimes I
still thrash around with words and grammar for ridiculous amounts of
time before I realize it and then I feel silly actually and then I'm
happy because I know I'll let it go and then feel lighter. As will the
prose.
A day or two after rediscovering my old notes, I read a section of ZMM
in which Phaedrus gives his students virtually the same advice.
Advice, I think now, that is about not forcing square pegs into round
holes as well as the virtue of non-attachment.
I've never painted. Is there any 'editing'? Once the paint's on the
canvas, there's no subtraction, only addition, right? But there are
unfinished novels? If you're not feeling in touch with a piece, is
there any filing it away for weeks, months or years later when you may
be in a better place to finish, with a wider perspective perhaps? Or
is it one-at-a-time? Are painters nagged by partially unpainted
canvas? Is it possible to leave a piece unfinished indefinitely; to
relegate half-baked ideas to the never-baked pile of your own free
will?
Marsha: "Why bother?"
Chuck: "Why not?"
Best regards,
Chuck
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