Jeremy's presentation reminded me of this today. Jane Vandenburgh talks about the build-it-and-he-will-come dynamic in writing. I remember chuckling as I read the reference, but it was toward the beginning of the book, so I kind of forgot about it until today when Jeremy referenced it. Vandenburgh writes:
This is the terrible truth about the book you want to write: The only one who understands what all this entails is you. And the only way you're going to discover what this is, is by writing it....This may seem hard because it sounds circular in its logic, as if you're being asked to use your hand to draw the picture of the hand holding the pencil that's drawing the hand holding the pencil....A novel has mystical, self-generative properties -- it wants to prove itself to you if you can relax and let it. (page 11-12)
This is the think I love about Vandenburgh. She lets you know it's okay that you have absolutely no clue what you're doing and where you're going. In fact, she tries to convince you that it's better that you have no clue. I think there was no better time in my life to read this book. Not only was the book useful for my interim project and the novella that I will be writing, but I think the book has taught me something about life that I wasn't expecting. I'm going to graduating in a few months, and I'm still not sure what I'll be doing. Now, I like lists and plans and routines and being able to predict things. But Vandenburgh's advice about writing made me think about my time at Wofford. At Wofford I have learned things and experienced things that I could have never imagined as a freshman. I have built a set of skills and passions throughout my time at Wofford, and I can only hope that the opportunities will just keep coming.
In other news, I've been tweaking my presentation (thanks for your help, everyone!) and working on my paper. Until I started writing my paper, I didn't realize how much I had learned and done over interim! Though most of it was reading, I feel like I've learned a lot, and I'm really excited to get started on my novella.
First, thank you for some lovely, insightful comments on my blog. I always appreciate yours (and everyone else's) feedback.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I hope you will continue writing on your blog for us to read. I have so enjoyed hearing your way with words. I feel like I discover a little bit more about writing every time you do, and I know that what's on here is only a small snippet of what you're discovering, so I'm kind of in awe over what we are seeing and over what we're not seeing
Third, as a big list person myself (I unintentionally made one just now answering this question. Whoops...) I feel like I should read this book. I feel like as students, we are trained for a life of linear history and listed occurrences. We memorizes dates and movements chronologically, go through school moving evenly from one year to the next, and live life in a culture where things are expected to happen in a certain order (school, graduate, job, marriage, child...). It's so hard to remember that this order is a facade, that time isn't always so linear. It's so hard to let go of structure and put your faith in a sort of organic order that will just work itself out eventually. So I think a book that preaches this faith might be nice. Thanks for bringing it on my radar :)