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Writing is like . . . building a house, pulling teeth, poun Writing is like . . . building a house, pulling teeth, poun

Writing is like . . . building a house, pulling teeth, poun - PowerPoint Presentation

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Writing is like . . . building a house, pulling teeth, poun - PPT Presentation

horse throwing a lump of clay on a potters wheel performing surgery on yourself without anesthesia Writing is like Bridge Building I wanted to try to build a bridge of words between me and that world outside that world that was so distant and elusive that it seemed unreal ID: 224866

building writing hard writer writing building writer hard water time laying pipe costumes ride waiting skates giving ice house

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Slide1

Writing is like . . . building a house, pulling teeth, pounding a wall, riding a wild horse, throwing a lump of clay on a potter's wheel, performing surgery on yourself without anesthesia.

Writing is like . . .Slide2

Bridge BuildingI wanted to try to build a bridge of words between me and that world outside, that world that was so distant and elusive that it seemed unreal.

(Richard Wright, 

American Hunger

, 1975)Slide3

Road BuildingThe maker of a sentence . . . launches out into the infinite and builds a road into Chaos and old Night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson, 

Journals

, December 19, 1834)Slide4

Giving Away Loaves & FishesWriting is like giving away the few loaves and fishes one has, trusting that they will multiply in the giving. Once we dare to "give away" on paper the few thoughts that come to us, we start discovering how much is hidden underneath these thoughts and gradually come in touch with our own riches.

(Henri

Nouwen

Seeds of Hope: A Henri

Nouwen

Reader

, 1997)Slide5

Opening A ClosetWriting is like opening the closet you haven't cleared out in years. You are looking for the ice skates but find the Halloween costumes. Don't start trying on all the costumes right now. You need the ice skates. So find the ice skates. You can go back later and try on all the Halloween costumes.

(Michele Weldon, 

Writing to Save Your Life

, 2001)Slide6

WoodworkingWriting something is almost as hard as making a table. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood. Both are full of tricks and techniques. Basically very little magic and a lot of hard work are involved.

(Gabriel

García

Márquez

The Paris Review Interviews

, 1982)Slide7

Building A HouseIt is helpful to me to pretend that writing is like building a house. I like to go out and watch real building projects and study the faces of the carpenters and masons as they add board after board and brick after brick. It reminds me of how hard it is to do anything really worth doing.

(Ellen Gilchrist, 

Falling Through Space

, 1987)Slide8

Laying PipeWhat civilians do not understand--and to a writer anyone not a writer is a civilian--is that writing is manual labor of the mind: a job, like laying pipe.

(John Gregory Dunne, "Laying Pipe," 1986)Slide9

Smoothing RipplesWriting

is like trying to smooth ripples from water with one's

hand—the

more I try, the more disturbed things get.

(

Kij

Johnson, The Fox Woman, 2000)Slide10

SurfingDelay is natural to a writer. He is like a surfer—he

bides his time, waits for the perfect wave on which to ride in. Delay is instinctive with him. He waits for the surge (of emotion? of strength? of courage?) that will carry him along.

(E.B. White, 

The Paris Review Interviews

, 1969)Slide11

Another surfer writerWriting a book is a bit like surfing. . . . Most of the time you're waiting. And it's quite pleasant, sitting in the water waiting. But you are expecting that the result of a storm over the horizon, in another time zone, usually, days old, will radiate out in the form of waves. And eventually, when they show up, you turn around and ride that energy to the shore. It's a lovely thing, feeling that momentum. If you're lucky, it's also about grace. As a writer, you roll up to the desk every day, and then you sit there, waiting, in the hope that something will come over the horizon. And then you turn around and ride it, in the form of a story.

(Tim Winton, interviewed by Aida

Edemariam

The Guardian

, June 28, 2008)Slide12

Swimming Under WaterAll good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

(F. Scott Fitzgerald, in a letter to his daughter, Scottie)Slide13

HuntingWriting is like hunting. There are brutally cold afternoons with nothing in sight, only the wind and your breaking heart. Then the moment when you bag something big. The entire process is beyond intoxicating

.

(Kate

Braverman

, quoted by Sol Stein in 

Stein on Writing

, 1995)Slide14

Pulling the Trigger of a GunWriting is like pulling the trigger of a gun; if you are not loaded, nothing happens.

(attributed to Henry Seidel Canby)Slide15

DrivingWriting is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you cannot make the whole trip that way.

(attributed to E.L. Doctorow)Slide16

WalkingThen we'd revise, make the words walk slowly on the slippery trail.

(Judith Small, "Body of Work." 

The New Yorker

, July 8, 1991)