If you are creating something real, structure will reveal itself to you eventually. Look—there’s the vista. You lay the bricks. Moments connect. History and heritage ripple through the present. A voice emerges like a strain of music. And then—through the fog—a shape. It may not be what you expected. It may not even be what you hoped for. But it will be yours.
Dani Shapiro, Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life
I finish reading Dani Shapiro’s latest book, Inheritance, and, having enjoyed it so much, return to another of hers from a few years ago, Still Writing. It adds fuel to the writing flame.
Obligation pulls me temporarily from my manuscript—that’s the nature of life. Intention says I’ll return as soon as I can.. Wisdom says that a weekend off is not necessarily a bad thing.
Today: an unplanned Saturday appointment, wrangling words for another project with a deadline looming, and a handful of other miscellany.
You know, I’m a Dani Shapiro devotee too.
I’m not surprised, Marian! She has such a gentle, and real way of wrangling words.
That makes three of us!
Another kindred spirit!