Every so often I'll make a mistake in my writing. I'll spell a word wrong or write the wrong word or something. This is more like often than every so often. But sometimes a mistake sounds wonderful. It sounds fresh and out of character.
As a writer I tend to fall into a general way of speaking, a pattern of verb tense, a category of sentence structure. When I screw up it's like I'm falling off of that pattern and onto a new one.
Treasure little mutations like this. Collect your happy mistakes. They appear only when they want to, like good dreams.
As a human you have one life. As a human writer you have a special interest which stokes your artistic talent. You take certain parts of your life and keep them. You live and sleep with one eye open. You are aware of the gems in the river silt, incorporating them (the oustide) and your thoughts (the inside) then putting it all on paper.
This is a substantial part to the art of writing, the process of attention. What's wonderful is that you have more time now than ever again to pay attention. You are lucky every moment because of this.
Be grateful that things are on their way, that when they arrive, you can use your writing to greet them and provide a home for them to stay in. Learn to appreciate happy mistakes and certain moments different from the rest, they are all you have to work with in becoming a better writer.
-Cote
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"The oustide". : ).
ReplyDeleteI like this.
The same (or something similar, I suppose) can be said for all of the material that goes into writing. Everything to work around-- the boundaries of vocabulary, language, grammar, human err-- doubles as something to embrace. This is the medium, these are the tools. It just takes perspective (perspective is the opposable thumb of the art world) to make them work for you.
Yeahum.
ReplyDeleteMe and Cote our friends.