tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2283849717487961708.post1507044755603647190..comments2008-01-15T19:23:42.150-08:00GOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15887517793752604788noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2283849717487961708.post-39320594518851014102008-01-15T19:23:00.000-08:002008-01-15T19:23:00.000-08:00I like your collage a lot. Could you post a few more?<BR/><BR/>-- John L.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2283849717487961708.post-24109744496493896942008-01-10T14:10:00.000-08:002008-01-10T14:10:00.000-08:00I made a comment on someone's blog recently – God alone knows who (I lose track) – but they were presenting writing as the sculpture within the block of marble. I immediately wrote back and presented an argument similar to the one you do. Not all my writing is constructed this way but the novels and short stories are. The hard thing is getting that original core, thread, whatever you want to call it and then the fun stuff comes, grafting on the details. I suppose some people might just think of it as editing because it incorporates editing but it's more than that. And it can take years. <BR/><BR/>I think a lot of younger writers are afraid to leave their work in case it somehow goes off. I watched an interview with John Irving last week where he explained how he works. He in fact welcomes interruptions (usually these come when he need to drop everything to work on a screenplay) because, he says, when he return to the work he always sees things he would never have noticed when he was in mid-flow. I just pasted in a block of text into my latest project that I wrote about eighteen months ago, long enough to practically forget everything I originally wrote. Thankfully it still stand up to scrutiny.Jim Murdochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.com