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Regarding Martha's favorite advice on how to write, it struck me that it is a valid approach to any creative endeavor. I'm a machine designer by trade, and I use the approach she suggested: I don't try to get the machine buttoned down right off the bat and I don't worry about rework. I just get the basics in place, with a general concept, and move on to the next area. Often, concepts later in the design suggest better approaches to previous areas, and if everything goes right, an elegant solution appears (sometimes, a subtle change in design will suddenly make the whole thing crystallize; it's beautiful when that happens).
I agree with the idea of rework, but, when I write, I have a problem of thinking about rework too much. I imagine that you, gw, eventually reach some point where the thing you're designing simply works as well as -- or better than -- you'd hoped, and you consider it completed. I have pieces I had originally written twenty or more years ago that I still consider yet-to-be-finished. I suppose I sort of consider the "finish" to be the point at which I send a work to be published, but even then I can't let go (I've actually edited one of my published stories with a marker as I was reading it -- then again, I might be a bit crazy). Any other writers out there feel the same?
gw said:
Actually, I have a boss, a schedule, and a budget that decide when the design is good enough, even if I think it could use rework.
I hope you didn't think I was speaking ill of your profession or creations; I am actually in awe of people who can do what you do (and what my father did as an electrical engineer, as well as my brother, the physicist). Creating complex, practical, and functional machines is an amazing thing to me — I have none of those skills, so I've chosen bullshit professions like writer, editor, and lawyer (also teacher, but that one's not a bullshit profession; that's the one that makes me feel as though I'm contributing to society).
That has to be one of the most difficult calls to make, as a creator of anything, be it machines or text.
I still do writing, but much of my work involves 2D and 3D animations for science and math. Every time I look at one of my creations, even those that have already been published, I see things I could have done better. To avoid getting into an "infinite loop" one just has to make a decision at some point that the work is "ready for prime time." I tend to err on the side of tweaking it too much, at an obvious cost to productivity. I guess it just comes down to having confidence in what you do. And for us self-judgmental types, that can sometimes be difficult. But to quote a (in-)famous politico, I do feel your pain.
And I have to second tunawrite's comment that teaching is NOT a bullshit profession. I did that for close to 30 years, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had.
I'm a computer programmer (among other things), and I definitely agree that there comes a time when it works well enough and I just let it run. Computer programming is in many ways like engineering. But apparently writing, even explicative writing, is more like sculpture, painting or musical composition: I'm never satisfied. With email I have to hit Send eventually, but whether it's email, documentation or something else, anything longer than a sentence or two and I'm almost certain, if I reread it later, to notice one or more places I realize I could have been clearer. This post will be no exception.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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