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.
"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.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the props.
Finishing doesn't matter. Starting is the hard part!
ReplyDeleteAnd you could never be a rank amateur. Never, I say.
I know what you mean. It's a good sign though--always wanting your writing to be more. Then, it will be more.
ReplyDeleteyou are my hero, my writing hero. your post breaks my heart for you.
ReplyDeleteI 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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