Re: how to get published
citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Tue, 28 Sep 1999 09:07:54 -0700
Camille wrote:
>
>But what I am trying to battle now is the tendency to *try* to draw a
>perfect circle rather than just closing my eyes and letting it rip. I'm
>trying not to let the doubts, calculations and delusions push my pencil
>this way and that. I am trying to pretend that each piece of writing will
>not determine my future career, trying not to think `I need a one act play
>up by this time next year, I need to write a novel and get my name out by
>the age of 22'. I think the best thing for me now would be to write a whole
>novel and then burn it; to know that I will not be assessed on my
>performance every step of the way. I'm sure Salinger would be the first to
>say how tragic and paradoxical it is that the one system that has been put
>in place to facilitate your writing can also be the one that warps what
>made it so virtuous in the first place. I think I have to get myself into a
>nice sunny secluded room and draw circles to my heart's content for a
>while.
To quote from the beaverboard in Seymour and Buddy's old room:
"You have the right to work, but for the work's sake only. You have no
right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be
your motive in working. Never give way to laziness, either."
--Bhagavad Gita
I again invoke Seymour's marbleshooting couching of Buddy at the close of
SAI.
And to close with some real words of wisdom:
"I am writing . . . because this is the story I want to tell. Then the
rest falls into place."
--Bruce