Margaret Atwood
This week's ponderings about books, and in a sideways connection this one ponders writing. Margaret Atwood is a wise and visionary woman, and writer. And these are wise words.
It doesn't take a lot of interrogation work out what she means here, or whether she is trying to say this, or maybe that...
I am more interested in thinking about the truth of what she says which feels so very very true.
I think if we all sat around waiting until we knew we could produce something perfect, whether it was waiting for the perfect gathering and sequencing of words; or perhaps the perfect execution of a painting; or the flawless sewing of a garment without a single mis-stitch; or the perfect layout and placement and selection of lettering or type, then none of us could begin.
We all need to set something forth, regard it, consider it, move it around, lighten it up, darken it down, replace one thing with another. That is the work. It isn't the magical translation of an idea or notion conceived perfectly within the mind into something physical or evident.
Writing a book is not about having the whole thing mapped out in your head, every plot point, every character, every description and then delivering it word-perfectly. Nor is it about not putting pen to paper until you have the perfect way of depicting or describing something. It is about getting something down and then refining it.
It is incremental.
I think this is not so much a pondering as a nodding in agreement. And a reminder to stop not starting until you have the perfect idea or process or layout or colour swatches or...
In making a book, or writing some words. Dive in and do it. Reflect. Repeat.
Be curious. Explore. Take it step by step.
Perfect timing with this post... I read something last week that makes this point and it was a 'put the book down and sit with this for a while" kind of moment. Essentially it was that your work will never be executed in the perfect you way you envisage, it just isn't possible, with all the variables along the way... so stop letting that stop you. I love your thinking and working out of what it means to create, how incremental it is. Your thoughts have truly cemented what I had been skirting around the edges of. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteSounds like great timing! I have friends who use "trust the process' as a guide; and when I read back over this post I can really hold onto "get something down and then refine it". I like your suggestion that nothing can be perfectly executed given all of the variables along the way; and that we really shouldn't let that desire for the perfect translation of thought into being stop us starting.
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