what you won’t know
by uzwi
Sometimes a writing problem will begin to resolve itself when you recognise that you haven’t been acknowledging pivotal events in your life. You’ve changed without knowing it. You were looking in the wrong place for solutions because you were looking in the wrong place for yourself. This recognition, however, doesn’t provide automatic or short-term relief. It’s unlikely to be a professional solution. The problem of writing is always the problem of who you were, always the problem of who to be next. It is a game of catch-up, of understanding that what you’re failing to write could only be written by who you used to be. Who you are now should be writing something else: what, you won’t know until you try.
the m john harrison blog 
I should definitively try. Because I don’t know. Just “plans”, “ideas”, “notes”, but afraid of the process, not really knowing where it leads. Afraid of what the text might reveal. Pussy me.
[…] what you won’t know "The problem of writing is always the problem of who you were, always the problem of who to be next. It is a game of catch-up, of understanding that what you’re failing to write could only be written by who you used to be. Who you are now should be writing something else: what, you won’t know until you try." (tags: writing mjohnharrison ) […]
An intriguing idea, but what if one agrees with Sartre that the self is a persistent illusion?
I like this. I’m trying to think of something more sophisticated to say about it but I’ve just got “like.”
And if you’re faced with a substantial re-write ?
Chris: And if self is a persistent illusion, then so too could be Sartre.
Hi Nigel. I think the idea is that you might be faced with something more substantial than the most substantial rewrite… I wouldn’t want to carry on with a project that was writing an old version of my emotional/intellectual position. I did it a lot in the 70s & didn’t enjoy the mixture of drudgery & confusion it caused.
The quantum self – always a bugger, isn’t it?
We’re still waiting for heuristic psychology, too: personality as an emergent trope. But it takes a wiser head than mine to take that kind of Einstein zen for a bop around the floor.
Equally applicable to any creative endeavour, possibly???
[…] here. Thank you. Maybe then the solution is to stay still. Or write fast. To sink […]