Re: good art taking time: I have lately been thinking about the optimal length for a great piece of music, and I think it’s somewhere around 9 minutes.
One of my favorite pieces of music ever written is the 5th movement of Messiaen's 'Quartet for the End of Time' and in some versions it is almost exactly 9 minutes.
I did have a vision when I started my book: that if I went through with this process, the process itself would change me. It would show me a path out of grief. I couldn't articulate it while in my masters, but that's ultimately what informed my every decision. Why am I learning this about my past, and what is it here to teach me? For a long time I was writing a book about escape, because running from Alaska was all I knew. But now I can very clearly see, my story is about return. And I've returned, and am very much changed. Anyhoo, this is all to say thank you for this reminder. As I write the dreaded story summary in prep for submitting my manuscript, it was nice to be reminded of what started this journey in the first place.
Right: there are visions we have for the process in addition to the final product. Visions for us as the writers, and visions for what we want our readers to experience. Sometimes they overlap, but it's interesting when they're different visions.
Re: good art taking time: I have lately been thinking about the optimal length for a great piece of music, and I think it’s somewhere around 9 minutes.
One of my favorite pieces of music ever written is the 5th movement of Messiaen's 'Quartet for the End of Time' and in some versions it is almost exactly 9 minutes.
I did have a vision when I started my book: that if I went through with this process, the process itself would change me. It would show me a path out of grief. I couldn't articulate it while in my masters, but that's ultimately what informed my every decision. Why am I learning this about my past, and what is it here to teach me? For a long time I was writing a book about escape, because running from Alaska was all I knew. But now I can very clearly see, my story is about return. And I've returned, and am very much changed. Anyhoo, this is all to say thank you for this reminder. As I write the dreaded story summary in prep for submitting my manuscript, it was nice to be reminded of what started this journey in the first place.
Right: there are visions we have for the process in addition to the final product. Visions for us as the writers, and visions for what we want our readers to experience. Sometimes they overlap, but it's interesting when they're different visions.