The reason I’m not bothering you more is that for a couple of weeks I have been working again on a novel I have been working on, on and off, this version and that, for more years than I care to count. This time it is coming well, but then, I always think that at the outset. We’ll see. The thing is, every so often it feels like I’m getting help. The last time that happened, it was Babe in the Woods, (which i should have titled Open Door), and when i expressed surprise to Rita (then in her last year in the body), she reminded me that Hemingway had said he would help, months before. I had forgotten.
Let’s pattern for something similarly helpful this time around, but I must say, that’s what it feels like, somebody giving me bright ideas now and again. Stay tuned.
I suspect we all are getting help. I feel the need to let your material from August sink in and roll around inside me. My own teaching assistants challenge me to reach for the intuited concepts and pull them into a focus that makes sense to me. It’s hard work and slow going. In this sense and with humor I say, “Thanks for the quiet time.”
It seems whatever appears here, including and especially comments from others, is often a guidepost to greater insight.
You may be incommunicado but behind the scenes it’s as active as ever.
John
Frank,
Glad to hear the writing is going well, and that you’re ‘hearing’ the help. A number of times, particularly when you were ‘writing’ for Hemingway, I felt a lyrical quality in your words, and wondered if you felt that ‘help’ coming through.
Seems it’s a long (and important!) journey from “I want to do it myself!” to “I want to use as much of (that VAST mysterious) ‘myself’ as I can!” Funny, that ‘help’ doesn’t seem to reduce the work and effort one bit (grin) … but (for me) it makes the work much more fun and satisfying!
Jim
Yeah, who cares how much work it is, if the result is good?
Well, I still have a tendency to whine about ‘how hard it is’ … and can hear ‘them/myself’ laugh and giggle about that too! Don’t think it’s meant to be easy … but do work toward those feelings of fun!
I don’t see why we shouldn’t whine now and again, but i sympathize more and more with them laughing at us. i think our times of discouragement may seem to them the equivalent of our determining to stand in a corner and hold our breath until we turn blue. They’re not entirely terrified at the prospect…. 🙂
I don’t see why we shouldn’t whine now and again, but i sympathize more and more with them laughing at us. i think our times of discouragement may seem to them the equivalent of our determining to stand in a corner and hold our breath until we turn blue. They’re not entirely terrified at the prospect…. 🙂
I don’t know who first said it, but I’ve heard writers say it more than once–“I just try to get out of the way.” Maybe that’s what you’re talking about. I get that feeling sometimes when I write, wondering myself what’s going to come next.