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Random Normality of a Graphical Nature
Spiraling Ever Lower Into a Torrent of Depression
Alan, over at the Newswire de Poor Mojo posted this a few days ago and I had meant to use it as a catalyst for a post…this post, in fact, and even got so far as to type that horribly intelligent and creative post title up above and then…shit got in the way. In any event, here’s the clip:
Every once in a while, it’s nice to hear something like that from someone you greatly admire as a way of bringing a brief piece of respite to one’s flagging spirit.
Tim Powers (do I bring him up enough?) has a similar way of describing this phenomena of creative output that does not equal one’s intentions.
He calls it “the million words of crap.”
It’s in reference to writing specifically, but it goes like this. Every writer, Powers says, has one million words of crap in him that must be purged before he can start producing anything good. If this figure of one million is accurate then I am already 1/5 of the way through mine.
I bring this up because I have been, very slowly, working on ever more revisions for novel #1 and the farther along I get, the more I am convinced I will never be able to sell said novel. Parts of the first 100 pages (or so) were written up to 10 full years ago and I like to think that I’ve improved my skill in that time. Or, I should say that if, in fact, I have not improved then I should just end my existence now.
If memory serves, exsulis is the only person to have read the entire manuscript. And the version he finished was not the most current, i.e., still very bad. I’m trying to get the entire thing to merely “bad” but I’m unsure if it is possible for me to do so, or even possible at all.
Tagged Arts of the Written Persuasion, Ira Glass, Million Words of Crap, Tim Powers, Wallowing. Bookmark the permalink.
Well, as it said on the wall of my high school gym:
To be great, you must be good
To be good, you must be bad
To be bad, you have to start
You’ve already started, and I’m guessing you’re not bad, so you must be at least good, which is further than a lot of people get.
It is probable that I am the only person to have read said novel 6 times. You can tell the part that was written 10 years ago to the final sections. Even with all the editing, the first part feels a lot different than the final sections.
Actually, you haven’t read it with the “heavy” edits.
And Kerri, thanks for the kind words.
The old edition was edited heavily to the version that I now have.
True, not the new edits but the version that was “submitted.”
I will note that you share some of the same writting techniques as Brandon Sanderson, who is writting the final novel in the Wheel of time series.
I’m not a professional writer (or even inspired to be one) but I know that writers are some of the hardest people on themselves, I think because it’s a solitary sort of work. It’s kinda like how singers who’re solo artists are more likely to implode than group members.