I love this, Chuck! It rings true in so many ways, literally (ha ha) and metaphorically. At one point, I thought of John Gardner (The Art of Fiction) and how critical and nit-picky he could be about the process of writing. Your analysis is far more accepting and humane and I might eventually come to accept that Gardner was just another arrogant asshole with good ideas -- about how others should do things differently. Some of his advice was very good, but what a crank ...
this is beautiful -- thanks for it
coming for my neck with the "flights of impressive language in search of an idea" bit
man I relate to all of this very hard
I love this, Chuck! It rings true in so many ways, literally (ha ha) and metaphorically. At one point, I thought of John Gardner (The Art of Fiction) and how critical and nit-picky he could be about the process of writing. Your analysis is far more accepting and humane and I might eventually come to accept that Gardner was just another arrogant asshole with good ideas -- about how others should do things differently. Some of his advice was very good, but what a crank ...