"I've rewritten the first twenty pages of my book about four times."
"MOVE ON. Write the rest of the story, and then come back to the beginning. I tell my students the same all the time when it comes to essays, and I do the same with poetry."
"But. But it's not perfect. I want it to be better."
"It's not going to BE perfect, but it won't get better until you write the rest of it."
Let it first be said that I know nothing about writing novels, and my "advice" to Seth may be as useful as "articles" from monster.com. I know quite a bit about essays, poetry, and flirtatious letters, but for all outlying genres, I possess a mere undergrad's expertise.
That being said, all writers have our old frienemies of process, and mine is usually title. I've wanted a public blog since I realized professional writers can do that and not lose their day jobs over it. I've wanted to write about five posts by now, but they've all been aborted due to my petulant need for instant reward (forget about storing unpublished drafts), and my inability to come up with a title.
So here's the temporary version, one of my favorite phrases from a Tori Amos song. Not just a fearscape, but a favorite fearscape. A terrifying place that is so familiar now we've memorized every uncomfortable footfall. Fantastic like a dream, and disquieting like waking life.
I'm still waiting for one of her agents to tell me to remove it, after which I will spend the next hour squealing and fawning and telling everyone "she talked to me." I'm hoping by then, I will have something more more original, but this at least enabled me to put the keys in my ignition.
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