Make Things Possible
I am home with a sick kid today, like most of the rest of North America, it seems. If you are home, too, or avoiding your writing, or waiting for a phone call, here’s a beautifully written, evocative essay that I found on the Editorial Ass(istant) website. The essay is by Alexander Chee, about his studies with Annie Dillard. Here’s my favorite part, Annie speaking:
Don’t worry about being original… Yes, everything’s been written, but also, the thing you want to write, before you wrote it, was impossible to write. Otherwise it would already exist. You writing it makes it possible.
I did not study with Annie Dillard, although I read her voraciously when I was at graduate school, flailing about for what it was I was “meant” to write. I had decided creative nonfiction about the Texas Hill Country was what I was meant to write for my thesis, at the very least, and found much to learn from in her work.
To all my writer friends: Go and make things possible today!
This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
7:28 pm on October 19th, 2009
It is a great essay. Hope the illness doesn’t spread and the already sick son is up and going full strength again soon. Also hope the phone call you’re awaiting comes soon and is a productive one.
7:58 pm on October 19th, 2009
Thanks, Shelli! Me,too….
6:16 pm on October 21st, 2009
Nikki,
I just read that essay a few days ago and LOVED it. Very inspiring. I think I’ll have to bust out my Annie Dillard books again. I had the flu yesterday (24hr. but ICK!). Hope yours is short-lived as well.
7:32 pm on October 21st, 2009
Hi! Lucky you. I have the longer version of the flu. But I am getting a bit of reading and writing done…
7:47 pm on October 23rd, 2009
I hope your family feels better soon! My little guy is over his bug. And I just heard a sneeze.
I’m busting my tail to finish up revisions on a much improved version of the mss you read. I hope to query agents from the WLT conference in a week or so. 
Cheers to everyone making things happen! Thanks for being an inspiration.
Lindsey
10:04 pm on October 23rd, 2009
Good luck with your querying, Lindsay! We’re all pretty much well now, just dragging a bit. I had a good writing day, though, so no complaints!