Archive for June 8, 2015
STRUGGLLING TO GET IT WRITE: AN EPIPHANY
This piece will demonstrate how slow a learner I am and how much I have to learn.
I’m in the process of reading Paulo Coelho’s novel, Eleven Minutes. I’m sure many of you are familiar with his name from his famous novel, The Alchemist, which has been on the bestseller list for years.
As I’m reading, I marvel at how simple the process of his writing appears to be, how characters and scenes just falls into place. As I brooded on this observation and compared it to my own work, lightning struck my addled brain. The process was not simple but born through skill and hard work. The richness I observed was the level of his skill and determination.
I have had a problem for the last few years, well maybe more than one, and have discussed it in my blog in the past. I have a fear of the rewrite, of not getting it perfect. What a fool! The ‘write’ doesn’t make the piece, it’s the rewrite that gives life to the framework.
Looking at a writer as a sculptor, a sculptor of thought, if you will, the first draft is the initial release of the form imprisoned in the rock or marble, the metal or marble; the writer’s mind. It is only through careful chipping away that the work takes form. It is only after editing and living with the work is the work completed. The initial draft is nothing but the birth. I’m going to try to force myself to put these observations to use.
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