Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Blocked

I've gotten stuck in the rewriting of Drayton, and I find myself lost. I have no idea what I'm doing or why. I suspect that I should hold off again, step back, and reconsider. Put it aside for a year or more and let it fester. See how it comes out once I've forgotten it.

I think I should almost certainly start over and rethink and refine every aspect of the book, every page, every paragraph, every sentence, every word.

But we'll see. Currently, I'm feeling pretty low and frustrated generally. that's not the proper time to make these sorts of decisions. However, I think I will put the project on hold while I sort myself out. That's only fair to the work. It's better to do nothing than to do it an injury.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The writing, when it comes more from beyond where and what one has written before, changes the writer. And then, it seems, the writing is no longer the same or 'his' as it was before. Incremental changes of conception become exponential...Someone else recently remarked on his current struggles with what his own writing had gotten himself into. Maybe it would help to compose an essay precisely about what happens when a writer (you) gets 'the great doubt' or, to use another borrowed image, is like a mosquito trying to bite an iron bull. Perhaps this no-way-out-of-stuck moment is fecund in another way...

Leonard said...

What you say is true, my dear semi-anonymous friend. And overall, the effect is good. Me better write goodly soon. Also. There. In Alaska. But I digress.

There's also a piece by Malcolm Gladwell about late bloomers in The New Yorker that applies to me and my situation. Beyond me, I ain't castin' no aspersions.

It has been an interesting process, and I will write more about it on my main blog. Also, I'll be making another policy statement re: Drayton here later today.