Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Literary life.


It's been awhile since I whined about
--I mean updated you--on my literary exploits.  I know! What a terrible oversight!  Thank God I can't think of anything else to blog about.

May I just say that this narcissism--I mean navel-gazing--I mean self-reflection--is stimulated by the fact that I heard Dr. Write read tonight.  She was excellent--the idiosyncratic voices of her stories, read in her trademark unprepossessing and supercool style.  Her writing makes you glad there is such a thing as writing.  Which leads me to this point:  lately, I am writing but not finishing.  

Case in point, I have a piece of writing that I feel great confidence is going to be a terrific poem that will break your heart.  I'm pretty sure that it will break my own heart.  I feel this way especially when I just look at the piece of writing, but I am kind of terrified to press on, to try to find a form for it, to add things or take things out.  As long as I don't write it, I told my friend tonight after the reading, I haven't yet wrecked it.

Why does writing always make me feel like a rank beginner?  

I made a promise to myself that I would have this poem drafted by the next time there's a reading--two weeks from now--and I will read it at the open.  So I may have to break my heart a dozen times, or even more than that, within the next two weeks.  



5 comments:

  1. "I'm not all hung up on that 'closure' thing." My favorite quote from "The Big Chill." In any case, I'm all for moving forward as a way to not finish. So write more and keep writing. Or, put it in a drawer and forget about it for exactly one week.
    And thanks for the props.

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  2. Finishing doesn't matter. Starting is the hard part!

    And you could never be a rank amateur. Never, I say.

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  3. I know what you mean. It's a good sign though--always wanting your writing to be more. Then, it will be more.

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  4. you are my hero, my writing hero. your post breaks my heart for you.

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  5. I feel that way when I write; like I've never done it before and I'm not even good enough to hold a pen(cil) upright. But I write, and get better with each attempt.

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