So, last night I started writing a really long post riffing on a conversation some of my co-workers were having yesterday. I'd gotten five or six paragraphs in when I realized I didn't have a point, wasn't making a point, and in fact probably couldn't have found a point if I was sitting in a pile of sharp objects. So I deleted the whole thing. Perhaps at some future time I'll try again.
But don't you hate that? You *know* you have a thesis in there somewhere. You know you have all these thoughts that are just this close to coming together and making coherent sense. In fact, you're absolutely sure you have something brilliant and insightful to say. But it is elusive. I bet fucking Plato never had this problem. (And, yes, this is why they'll never make my name into an adjective, I'm well aware.)
In lieu of that, I would love to have posted some more pictures of amazingly well-preserved old people or discussed underwear or something, but it's been a busy morning. I had to cure the sick children!!! (If you go back to my very first entry in this blog, I predicted it would devolve into a morass of private jokes. I think we're there. In less than a year. Perhaps I'm not *totally* made of fail.)
Anyway, I promise: more content that doesn't make your IQ drop five to seven points just from reading it really, really soon.
xoxo
2 comments:
I had the great good luck to have Donald Murray as a writing prof. He did not allow us to wait for a point, or to be inspired, or for this or for that or t'other. What we had to do was to get it all out, all on paper (back then), and slowly hack away the edges until we found the point we were after. Most of us hated it then...and we are all grateful now that he made us do it. That so many of his students still make their living with words is his memorial.
You've begun...you got some of the stuff out. Next time, get it all out, even if it seems idiotic at first, then chip away. Sculptors say they can see the finished art in their block of raw material. It's the same thing.
You're really a very good writer, Andrea. What you need is a Don Murray or some equally terrifying editor to keep you chipping at that stone. I'd offer a hug but would that defeat the purpose?
Thank you for the *extremely* nice compliment. There's probably nothing that strokes my ego more than lurve for my writing. :-)
But what you said is exactly what was frustrating me the most. Usually that's how it happens for me--I start writing (either in my head or on "paper") and eventually it all slots together. I know what it is I'm trying to say and I know how I want to convey it. When it remains just out of reach, though, it's maddening.
I will at some point go back to it, if for no other reason than "hey jealousy" being a kickass title. In fact, I'm going on youtube *right now* to look for that song so I can get it properly stuck in my head for the day before my first patient arrives ;-)
Post a Comment