Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Work-in-Progress


I haven’t blogged for some time.


The need to connect with the outside world has atrophied in me since I started working on my new novel.


I write every day, bright and early.

I never think past the scene I’m about to write that day.

I write that scene honestly well and that scene always breeds the next scene for the next day.

I don’t overwrite, for I know, as a reader, I like to participate in a scene.

I stop where I still have something to say so the next day I won’t face a dry well.

I read each day and in between my writing breaks to keep my mind off my own writing.

I don't believe in any other rules except mine.

There is another rule, though. I never talk about or show my work-in-progress. In my writer’s primitive mind, I understand that a novel is the whole assemblage of parts. A lyrically written passage might garner compliments from friends or blog readers, but it’s not the novel. I also understand that, again in a primitive way, I should never fall in love with my writing. Then I won’t have the urge to show my work piecemeal to anyone who would tell me that I can write. Well, I’m a writer. Why do I need to be told that I can write?


For those who are still unsure of themselves about their chosen trade, read this:

I even read aloud the part of the novel that I had rewritten, which is about as low as a writer can get and much more dangerous for him as a writer than glacier skiing unroped before the full winter snowfall has set over the crevices.
That was what I would think if I had been functioning as a professional although, if I had been functioning as a professional, I would never have read it to them. [Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast]


[Image source: http://motoxstores.com]

2 comments:

  1. Now I need to get back to work myself I will try at least to write every day bright and early. And I'll have to stop the blog chit chat too. It'll be nice to see you when you get back.

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  2. I said once that the greatest fear a writer has while on his WIP is illness. Well, it happened to you, unfortunately. But I'm happy to see you back, Eryl.

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