Sit Down and Shout Into the Machine

So What If No One Reads It – Write It

Most things good for writing are bad for life. Lorrie Moore

Yes, it's hard

A while back I wrote about how writing is like Michelangelo creating David from a block of marble. The act of creation in turning a hulk of rock into a glorious sculpture. I was reminded of this... when one... [someone] mentioned that writing a first draft is actually creating the marble itself, creating something out of nothing first. Then the subsequent rewrites and edits turn it from a block of stone into a beautiful sculpture.

Once you've quarried the marble, carve. And carve and carve. And carve. That's where the real fun begins.

More from this great post on How It Feels to Finish the First Draft of Your Novel.

The Fear of Feeling Fear Is What You Fear Most

Every day, we make a thousand little compromises, avoid opportunities, actions and people--all so that we can stay away from the emotion of fear.

Note that I didn't say, "so we can stay away from what we fear." No, that's something else entirely. Right now, most of us are avoiding the things that might merely trigger the emotion itself. That's how distasteful it is to us.

Seth Godin, marketing guru and purveyor of the concept that effective marketing is about creating something remarkable and authentic, the opposite of traditional advertising.

His blog, the "#1 ranked marketing blog in the world," can be found here.

A Laxitive for Writing Constipation

 I don't remember where I found this but thought it was worth repeating.

So, it's not just me.

Cartoon by Shannon Wheeler.

St. Leonard canonizes the writer in you

There is a certain power in his book that cannot be denied even though you try to deny it in every word. Deny it here. Am I less disgusting than you are? Am I happier? Near the beginning of the Bible I am told how to build the Altar. It is to be raised with unhewn stones. You are such a sad hewer of stones. And you are an amusing enemy. Especially when you discover for us all your standards of hewn stone. You may worship here. You can rip a heart out of this paragraph.

Leonard Cohen, The Altar

I can't know what Cohen was intending here but what it says to me is this: What if he's speaking to the part of himself that is the writer which may be separate from the part that may sometimes doubt that the writer even exists. When it does acknowledge the writer it may in turn fear the writing? What if he's saying that it's the writer part is the higher self and to deny it is a kind of blasphemy? It's the eye directed inside that never closes. It exists whether you believe in it or not. Instead of denying it you should build it an altar and worship there.

And the final line: You can rip a heart out of this paragraph. Do not call your day's labor of writing done until you there is a heart in each paragraph, a heart that can be ripped out but only by you. Your critique group can't touch it––don't let them. To them and everyone else who would deny you as a writer it is inviolable. Believe only the eye, and the voice, inside.

Remember: Inviolable.