the most stubborn writer alive
Monday, March 18, 2013
"I can't. You know I can't. I'm not like that."
"You should try," he says, "because you're driving yourself crazy."
"I know," I say. "But I can't."
Why is it that I work this way, I wonder—incapable of writing forward when the scene I've been working on fails? Incapable of believing that I'll get it right some time. Now is the time, and now I am failing. The failure of the scene is the failure of the book until—unless—I get it right.
I'll be crazy between now and then.
4 comments:
Oh, I so understand this. But I also know you will find a way through it. You will, you will...
Oh, Beth. You know you can take care of that in the rewrite. I understand, I can do the same thing myself, but I agree with B. Skip it. For now. The answer could come easily to you tomorrow, during a walk, or when you wake up after some sleep tonight.
Gosh, I'm so glad to hear that a published writer and National Book Award winner still has trouble with a scene that isn't working.
Write a different scene. Come back to this one later. It'll work out. I believe in you, Beth!
You'll get it right. But I'm the same way. I want to be one of those writers who write anywhere in the story, just as I want to be fast and prolific. But a book for me is a house that I build from the foundation up. It can't stand if the foundation is cracked. I can't put the roof on before I've got the rest of the house in place. You'll get it, I know you will. And I'm more stubborn than you. :P
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