Day by day, and the unexplained
This may end up being a week where I build a blog on the shoulders of giants, i.e., other people's brilliant posts. First up today is Saundra Mitchell saying, in essence: Don't write a novel, just write a day's worth of words. It's like Anne Lamott's one-inch picture frame in Bird by Bird, and it definitely reflects the way I work. A novel is huge and complex, and it can't be done in one sitting (unless you're Jack Kerouac and relying on artificial stimulants).
When I begin a day's writing session, I always have a session goal in mind. Some examples: Write a scene. Revise a scene. Write for two hours. Fix chapter two. Root out all the extra "justs" and "actuallys". Whatever it is, it is never, "Write an entire novel." Sometimes I meet my goal and sometimes I don't, but it helps to keep the task at hand a manageable size.
Second up, this by way of an article by Damion Searls in the October 2010 Harper's. It's a quote from Tove Jansson, from her acceptance speech for the 1966 Hans Christian Andersen Award: in a book, "there should always be something left unexplained ..." "... a path at which the writer respectfully stops to let the child continue alone."
That doesn't mean to drop the reader off a cliff of unknowns. But I love the idea that our books can be more than a journey in themselves, that they can launch another journey for the reader. It's already clear to me (from getting critiques and reading reviews) how much of themselves readers bring to a book, and that's actually much of the joy in writing--thinking of each book as a collaboration that's created anew with each reader. And so not every single idea needs to be explicitly labeled and tied up with a bow. We seed our work with hints, suggestions, and signposts.
When I begin a day's writing session, I always have a session goal in mind. Some examples: Write a scene. Revise a scene. Write for two hours. Fix chapter two. Root out all the extra "justs" and "actuallys". Whatever it is, it is never, "Write an entire novel." Sometimes I meet my goal and sometimes I don't, but it helps to keep the task at hand a manageable size.
Second up, this by way of an article by Damion Searls in the October 2010 Harper's. It's a quote from Tove Jansson, from her acceptance speech for the 1966 Hans Christian Andersen Award: in a book, "there should always be something left unexplained ..." "... a path at which the writer respectfully stops to let the child continue alone."
That doesn't mean to drop the reader off a cliff of unknowns. But I love the idea that our books can be more than a journey in themselves, that they can launch another journey for the reader. It's already clear to me (from getting critiques and reading reviews) how much of themselves readers bring to a book, and that's actually much of the joy in writing--thinking of each book as a collaboration that's created anew with each reader. And so not every single idea needs to be explicitly labeled and tied up with a bow. We seed our work with hints, suggestions, and signposts.
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