tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post6187952233332750624..comments2023-09-12T09:09:08.656-07:00Comments on Well-Read Donkey: Harriet Chessman's Guest Post: Two Achilles HeelsAggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00745258157624796110noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post-46866103949043837762011-03-26T08:55:07.110-07:002011-03-26T08:55:07.110-07:00This thoughtful essay and its responses, as well a...This thoughtful essay and its responses, as well as the original photograph, make me think of one of Willa Cather's favorite quotations, one I often think about when writing: "Le but n'est rien; le chemin, c'est tout" (Michelet). I recently read a powerful novel by Dana Reinhardt, The Things a Brother Knows, in which two brothers walk from Boston to Washington, D.C. The younger brother tells himself, as he puts one foot in front of the other, "It is a marathon, not a sprint." I think about this too, while writing, and I wonder if for Dana Reinhardt this novel was also in some way about the process of writing fiction.Susan Meyerhttp://www.susanlynnmeyer.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post-53151743747938638942009-08-08T06:36:46.142-07:002009-08-08T06:36:46.142-07:00Harriet, you always talk about complicated things ...Harriet, you always talk about complicated things with such beautiful simplicity! Thanks so much for these thoughts--no time to write more right now, but I hope to find you here again soon!<br /><br />ScootAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post-66315174068419896712009-08-05T17:07:06.763-07:002009-08-05T17:07:06.763-07:00Patsy, you of all people are brilliant at creating...Patsy, you of all people are brilliant at creating a story with wings!! Among all the scholarly writing I've ever read, yours has such a genuine voice, and you bring your reader right along with you. I AM so very sorry about your parrot, though! and I hope its story is a good one indeed.<br /><br />Pat -- oh, yes, I definitely can't start writing each day til at LEAST 10 a.m. I love clearing other stuff away first. Of course, the list of "to do" never ends, but there's something in the knowledge that my household ship is afloat (largely) that makes it ok to start writing.Harriet Chessmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09297836260475212525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post-39127800407054833882009-08-05T16:49:39.315-07:002009-08-05T16:49:39.315-07:00One thing I loved about this post was the passage ...One thing I loved about this post was the passage about spending your morning immersed in "life" before you get to writing. In summer--the only time I get to write seriously--I have spent time castigating myself for not beginning to write at 5:00 a.m. or some other such hour. But life deserves its due--it, too, is important, and when the letters are mailed and the dishwasher is fussed over, then the writing is there. Thanks for writing this.Pat O'Donnellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10559502209183675751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post-64571439191459599332009-08-04T15:24:35.572-07:002009-08-04T15:24:35.572-07:00Oh Harriet--even though I'm an academic writer...Oh Harriet--even though I'm an academic writer, my Achilles heel is also story. I have lots of ideas and insights--but making them into a pattern or tale so that a reader will come long with me--no. That often resists me. I love the moment of illumination-coming to a clearing in the forest where the light starts shaking down and some tiny animal scurries across my feet and I can see. But when I write, I need more. The animal has to stay--and that's hard as it veers on and off the path. My notes represent all these sightings, but not the animal's dance, its meals, its defecation.<br /><br />I've just lost a parrot, so I'm thinking about gone-away animals, but the point holds true: I can find the animality of the word, the sentence, and sometimes even the paragraph, but an academic story also needs fur and fins, the wings of a plot.pyaeger@umich.edunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post-48340557437681900362009-08-02T18:38:18.752-07:002009-08-02T18:38:18.752-07:00So wonderful-- so true about writing, about life.So wonderful-- so true about writing, about life.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post-51073320593169879022009-08-01T08:33:45.341-07:002009-08-01T08:33:45.341-07:00Thank you to all!
Kate, I think sometimes about s...Thank you to all!<br /><br />Kate, I think sometimes about something William James wrote: along the lines of "Complicate the matter as much as you like, it has got to simplify." For me, the "simplicity" only can come, I guess, after MUCH complication --- and usually, when I think of a project, it's only about 2/3 of the way through the entire process (sometimes 1/2 of the way through the novel) that I actually can see any path at all! <br /><br />Maggie, wow, I too worry so much about the final destination. Thank you for this -- you're right, too much focus on / worry about a destination can hinder the process. In novel-writing, for me, once I can stay in the present and look at the trail underfoot, I SLOW DOWN, slow down, slow down . . .and that's when I can live in more "real time" with my characters.<br /><br />thank you all for your company on this journey!Harriet Chessmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09297836260475212525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post-4016296072417081632009-08-01T00:07:01.475-07:002009-08-01T00:07:01.475-07:00my achilles heel in writing is that i tend to allo...my achilles heel in writing is that i tend to allow the ever-present and frequently dominating notion of the final destination to overshadow, often hinder, the wonderfully elaborate process of creating pathways to the end. i can't help but look ahead towards the blue sky when i ought to concentrate on the trail underfoot.maggienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post-24606078998535485852009-07-31T16:51:50.949-07:002009-07-31T16:51:50.949-07:00I've just this minute come back from a long wa...I've just this minute come back from a long walk, Harriet, and I've passed beside the ocean (big surf today, not good for the anglers after perch), through fog, under blue sky, and through town, all the way following paths familiar to me but puzzling out that other path through what I'm writing now. So it's wonderful to read your post and see the simple path that inspires you. Serendipity? I don't know. I just know I feel like I have company!Kate Maloyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12338350828357415976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8434699491181348092.post-53783218339944893062009-07-31T15:43:48.943-07:002009-07-31T15:43:48.943-07:00As always, Harriet, you write so beautifully about...As always, Harriet, you write so beautifully about writing.Meg Waite Claytonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08077569696398164163noreply@blogger.com