Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
- Napoleon

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Square Prose; Round Hole

Still talking about Blink, and if you're getting sick of reading about my trials with this book just remember, I'm getting sick of having trials with this book. (Note: I am not sick of the book. I'm only sick of having problems with the middle of it.)

I think I have to scrap my new start on that section again. I'm still mired in my own words. I deleted one problem in favor of another, and both problems have their basis in trying to force a certain set of things to happen. This morning I admitted to myself that those things just aren't going to happen. They never would; they never could - and no amount of pushing is going to make them work. It's like trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. I've been beating that damn peg for a year now, and I only just realized it doesn't fit. So what do I do???

I substitute an oval peg and start hammering away.

The peg is fine. It's my brain that's starting to take on a funny shape. The more I hammer, the worse it gets. Trust me, forced writing serves no one's purpose. It sucks, and it will continue to do so until the weaker force (i.e. the writer) breaks down.

So, here we go again on the delete and rewrite. Lucky I only wrote a few hundred words on the oval peg. Once again, I think I figured it out, and I'm sure my prose is the right shape to fit the hole now. I'll just have to wait and see how long I hammer before it either pops into the hole or I break my fist.

1 comment:

Edie Ramer said...

Yay on finding out another way! I've done that too, tried different ways, over and over, and then finally it clicks. Love it when that happens.