"Treat your story as if a stone thrown into a still pool, coming to rest at the bottom. Then dive in after it." Mark Helprin, author of one of my favorite novels, A Soldier of the Great War, is credited with telling this piece of advice about writing to an audience member at a reading. In other words, know where you are going, then dive in.
I think it is a good piece of advice for life as well. Unfortunately, the water in the pool is often a bit murky, and so the stone often falls from sight and comes to rest in obscurity. We must have faith that the stone is there, waiting to be found. And dive.
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2 comments:
This reminds me of this David Whyte poem:
The Well of Grief
THose who will not slip beneath
The still surface on the well of grief
turning downward through its black water
to the place we cannot breathe
will never know the source from which we drink,
the secret water, cold and clear,
nor finf in the darkness glimmering
the small round coins
thrown be those who wished for something else.
Alas! the watching world is waiting for us to show them who they are.
That's a great poem, Brett. I'll have to check out more by Whyte. Thanks.
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