Well, I tried for a couple of hours to fix a problem on a friend's blog. No go. I guess I'm losing my tech touch. Soon I will be just like all the other befuddled mortals.
My friend took my defeat well, adopting a "I can live with it" attitude. I don't have that attitude. I want things fixed, even little things. For me, the beauty is in the details.
I see that detail obsession in my writing. Sometimes I overwrite, trying to make sure all the plot holes are closed. Some of those holes are obvious, some are obscure, but all bother me. I don't think I really ever finish editing a piece of writing. I just keep fiddling with it until it's published. That somehow releases me.
I draw comfort from something Jean Kerr once said. She said that criticizing a play for being over-written is like criticizing a airplane for being too well-built. Of course, she disagreeing with some critics who attacked some of Lillian Hellman's work, but I like the thought behind it. That need to produce as good a book, poem, flower bed, photograph, painting, cake, chair, etc., as humanly possible. I think art is built on that drive for perfection. And the tension in art comes from our inability to achieve it even as we constantly strive to do so.
2 comments:
There's a fix. Check Blogger.
I tried once before to write a book, and it was precisely that need to "fix" and "close holes" that made it eventually unpublishable. I had started with nothing more than a short story and then tried to stretch it into a novel, but I didn't have enough to say, so then decided to make it a childrens book, but then it was too long.(sigh) In the end it was just a jumble of disconnected thoughts that I couldn't tie together , so, it eventually ended up in the trash can.
Oh well, now I am trying again but this time I hope to get some help.
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