|
Words, Words, Words
While I haven't reached the stature of another writer from Maine, I have learned something about writing. Essentially,
I am self-taught. I know, the old saw says if you teach yourself, you will have a fool for an instructor. If the
great majority of us believed that, nothing would ever get created.
Here's the heart of the thing. If you parse every sentence to death as you write, you had better start when you
are four because you aren't ever going to get anything written.
You have to be able to have lots and lots of words: hundreds of thousands - more. You have to be able to throw
away words. If you cannot throw things away, the ones you have just get so damned important you waste all your
energy polishing them, making them more presentable, admiring them. There'll be no time for anything new to get
created.
That's right! You have to be able to waste words. Don't shudder and cringe. I know. It is painful. You stayed up
night after night writing them and now some fool comes along and wants you to throw them away.
Trust me in this, until you can throw away that faux Queen Mary the XII chair that has been sitting in the garage
for six years, it will be impossible to go out and get that neato automatic bean sprout puller that you just have
to have.
It's the same way with words. It really is. Write fast. Forget the dotted i's and crossed t's. You can always polish
them later when you wear your editor's hat. You can throw some of them away then also.
You are permitted to scream in agony when you do this. This is expected. Just don't do it too loudly. People will
think you aren't quite right in the head. And we all know that writers are the sanest people on earth.
|
