New Skin
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
I have discovered (again) that it is not until we get to the very last page of a novel's first draft that we know what we've been writing about. We've had direction, maybe, and, on good days, the wind at our back. We've had a chorus to return to, a choreography to hold us in, but it's in the final pages of crafting that we finally understand. That the bark is peeled back and we see the new skin of the tree.
6 comments:
I can't wait to get to the new skin of my latest project. I'm deep in old bark at the moment though!
I'm with Melissa - totally into the old bark. Love how you compare revisions to peeling away of old tree bark. :)
Melissa and Keri:
Well, let me just confess this out here in blog land; I've been tearing through endless old bark for months on end here (note my lack of perky public self of late).
And I'm not out of the woods yet. But what I realized today, as I wrote through to the end at last, is that I understand why I planted some rather unusual things into this novel in the first place. What they are there for. How they can be rubbed together to make meaning.
And I thought: Oh, at last at last at last. I can breathe again.
Of course, now there's the transcribing of scribble onto computer. There's the weighing of what I've done against my knowledge of what good books must be.
Judgment day.
hi beth
I am jane's daughter cat. i loved the book undercover mum and i saw it at the library. i was excited for you when i heard about house of dance and i can't wait to read your new book!
Hello, Cat!!
So nice to meet you here. I remember you so perfectly from your mom's wedding.
I have a special HOUSE set aside for you. Have your mom send me your address, okay?
Take care and happy end of school year!
Beth
AH, discoveries (again and again and again). Life is full of mysterious, wonderous moments of discovery. Enjoy your day Beth.
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