I live in Barre, Vermont which calls itself the "Granite Capital of the World." Outside our town are enormous quarries, so when I speak in local schools every child has a mental picture of a granite quarry. "You know how hard it is to get granite out of the quarry," I say. "You have to carefully score the rock and put the explosive in to make the great granite block break loose from the face of the stone. Then you have to attach the block to the chains so that the cranes can lift it slowly out of the hole a nd put it on the waiting truck. That’s the first draft. It’s hard, dangerous work, and when you’ve finished, all you’ve really got is a block of stone. But now you have something now to work on. Now you can take your block down to the shed to carve and polish it and turn it into something of beauty. That’s revision."
But first you’ve got to get that block of granite out of the earth, friends. You won’t have anything to make beautiful until you do that. Now go back to work. That means you too, Katherine.
Best wishes,
Katherine Paterson
I really love the image of a giant block of granite, as this first draft of 'garbage' I am creating. I also realized the last time I wrote 30 pages of something it was my thesis paper...so now I am about to strike out into more unknown territory...out beyond the thesis paper zone!!! I'm plowing ahead...still behind but not giving up!!
[Heather if you read this, I really think it could be helpful. Sometimes you have to just go out on a limb and write some crap and then go back and make it better! Love you!]
full PepTalk can be found HERE
3 comments:
Muah! I love you too. Work is stressful. So is moving. Oh, I might be moving. BLEH. Details on blog.
Re: Neil Gaiman Link Trade-off
So if I don't write something, do you take back the link? What if I read the link before I don't write something? Do you take what I read back out of my brain? How do you plan on doing that? While you're in there, can you pull out all the stuff I keep thinking about writing and dump it on your-seachest-masquerading-as-my-coffee-table so I can sort through it and turn it into something not so miscellaneous?
Josh gave me $40 for babysitting Magic, which is totally extravagent and ridiculous and he and Lara won't let me say I don't need paid for it. So you and I need to split it and get coffee-and-sugar-drunk on mochas (because I haven't had espresso in months) and go to the art supply store, or Joann's, or World Market, or somewhere else cool. Or we could get very small tattoos. Or we could do the first thing and give ourselves tattoos.
I really and truly do not want to be at work right now. I'm being so unproductive. I'm not even trying to be productive. I've waited on some people, answered the phone, input three textbook requests, and read a lot of blogs entries on Velcrometer. Rescue me, dearest, from the sea of apathy and entropy and other bad things ending in -py!
I'm sorry I have failed thee!! I was languishing in sickness yesterday confined to the couch being force fed chicken noodle soup and tea!
I would love to come get sugar buzzed with you, although I know from experience you DO NOT want to go get tattoos after drinking large amounts of espresso. [Trust me!] But art supplies might be fun...if I can get myself better.
I'll keep you updated! Have a safe drive today!
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