{"id":772,"date":"2017-02-11T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=772"},"modified":"2017-07-03T09:19:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T14:19:00","slug":"unnecessary-wear-and-tear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=772","title":{"rendered":"Unnecessary Wear and Tear"},"content":{"rendered":"

“To me, it\u2019s all about perceptions, perceptions about life or human nature or the way something looks or the way something sounds. Two or three of them on a page in a notebook, that\u2019s what it\u2019s really all about. Getting enough of them to enliven every page of a novel, like light. I mean, to call them felicities<\/em> is wrong. You have to have a clumsier formulation, something like droplets of originality, things that are essentially your own, and are you. If I die tomorrow, well, at least my children, who are approaching as we speak, at least they will have a very good idea of what I was like, of what my mind was like, because they will be able to read my books. So maybe there is an immortalizing principle at work even if it\u2019s just for your children. Even if they\u2019ve forgotten you physically, they could never say that they didn\u2019t know what their father was like.” Martin Amis, The Paris Review, The Art of Fiction No. 151, Spring 1998<\/a><\/p>\n

Did you know that poodles are hunting dogs at heart? Even the toy sort. I knew two poodles, one chocolate and one black, who together did not weigh as much as a large tomcat. Yet these two, Genevieve and Maddie, once tore to pieces a beautiful Christmas angel that was to be a gift. Because that’s what poodles do. I wish you could have seen how much fluff came from\u00a0that deconstructed angel. It was scattered from here to yon across the living room rug, and in the midst of it reposed the two pudelhunds<\/em>, heads high, proud and satisfied with the work they’d done. As far as those two were concerned, the angel was just another chew toy, and not a very sturdy one at that.<\/p>\n

To write well is to revise. To revise well is to dissect, analyze, cull and rearrange, then stitch it all together again, hopefully without too many seams and in a prettier form than it was before. This is necessary, and it is good, but it’s hard on the writer. There’s a wear and tear to the process and a recovery from it. Like surgery. Because of this, writers ought to be darned selective about critique. Our\u00a0work is not a chew toy, and it shouldn’t be treated as such. Critique belongs to those whose aesthetics we admire and those whom we trust. How else will the work be elevated? But emerging writers, and those who are yet to emerge, are given\u00a0to showing off what they’ve\u00a0done. They\u00a0present it to anyone and everyone who’ll hold still long enough to give an opinion. And…well…you know what they say about opinions.<\/p>\n

The Paris Review Art of Fiction No. 151\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0is a delight, and I recommend reading all of it. When asked how important ego and self-confidence are to the writer, Martin Amis had this to say,<\/p>\n

“Novelists have two ways of talking about themselves. One in which they do a very good job of pretending to be reasonably modest individuals with fairly realistic opinions of their own powers and not atrociously ungenerous in their assessments of their contemporaries. The second train of thought is that of the inner egomaniac; your immediate contemporaries are just blind worms in a ditch, slithering pointlessly around, getting nowhere. You bestride the whole generation with your formidability. The only thing your contemporaries are doing\u2014even the most eminent of them\u2014is devaluing literary eminence. Basically they\u2019re just stinking up the place. You open the book pages and you can\u2019t understand why it isn\u2019t all about you. Or, indeed, why the whole paper isn\u2019t all about you. I think without this kind of feeling you couldn\u2019t operate at all. The ego has to be roughly this size. I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s true, but I was told by a poet friend that even William Golding can come into a literary party at six-thirty and do a good imitation of a self-effacing man of letters, but at nine o\u2019clock the whole room may be brought to silence by his cry of I\u2019m a genius!<\/em> Just give him a bullhorn. They may have their little smiles and demurrals and seem twinkly and manageable characters but really . . . Is there anything you\u2019d like to add? Yes. I\u2019m a genius!<\/em> End of interview.\u00a0There\u2019s also the flip side, of course\u2014terrific vulnerability, crying jags, the seeking of the fetal position after a bad review and all that kind of stuff.”<\/p>\n

I suppose once you’ve written something that unveils human nature as unflinchingly as Lord of the Flies,<\/em>\u00a0you deserve to unleash your\u00a0inner egomaniac. The fetal position is much more familiar to the rest of us. God knows\u2014no matter how formidable our genius\u2014once our work is public, there’ll be no shortage of critics. But in the mean time, during the revision process, we ought to find a safe place among our writerly colleagues.<\/p>\n

The moral is this: Guard your confidence. It’s the portal to that beautiful wellspring whence creativity flows. As Mr. Amis wisely observed,\u00a0“…you trust entirely to instinct. It\u2019s all you\u2019ve got. Writer\u2019s block, disintegration of the writer, that\u2019s all to do with failing confidence.”<\/p>\n

Not only that, guard the confidence of others. If other writers trust us enough to give us access to their work\u2014in a group or one on one\u2014we must take care to grasp what they’re trying to do, lest we boorishly trample their pearls of originality.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 M K Simonds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“To me, it\u2019s all about perceptions, perceptions about life or human nature or the way something looks or the way something sounds. Two or three of them on a page in a notebook, that\u2019s what it\u2019s really all about. Getting … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[17,15],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Mo02-cs","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":95,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=95","url_meta":{"origin":772,"position":0},"title":"In Defense of Childlike Faith","author":"lsimonds","date":"June 1, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cYou cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life\u2026\u201d Matthew 6:24-25 Some years back I vacationed in San Antonio with the pre-teen children of friends. We had a good time. We spent one day at Seaworld. Another at Fiesta Texas. We floated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2003"","block_context":{"text":"2003","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":295,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=295","url_meta":{"origin":772,"position":1},"title":"Twisted","author":"lsimonds","date":"June 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cThese things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.\u201d John 16:33 \u201cDouble, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.\u201d The batch of trouble William Shakespeare\u2019s three\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2013"","block_context":{"text":"2013","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=66","url_meta":{"origin":772,"position":2},"title":"Cicada Summer","author":"lsimonds","date":"August 1, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cMy little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.\u201d Galatians 4:19 It\u2019s the wrong time of year, but I think I\u2019m molting. In Texas we have cicadas. Cicadas are insects that make a wonderful trilling chirp in the evenings. They have signaled summertime\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2002"","block_context":{"text":"2002","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1096,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=1096","url_meta":{"origin":772,"position":3},"title":"Horn of Plenty","author":"lsimonds","date":"November 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Jesus then took the loaves, and\u00a0when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples,\u00a0\u201cGather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.\u201d John 6:11,12 ESV\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2018"","block_context":{"text":"2018","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=18"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":106,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=106","url_meta":{"origin":772,"position":4},"title":"Who Do You Think You Are?","author":"lsimonds","date":"October 1, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cTherefore He says, when He ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men\u2026And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers\u2026\u201d Ephesians 4:8,11 Dallas Morning News columnist Marilyn Schwartz did a delightful article years ago about what it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2003"","block_context":{"text":"2003","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1125,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=1125","url_meta":{"origin":772,"position":5},"title":"Christmas Feast","author":"lsimonds","date":"December 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.\" Psalm 34:8 Taste is our most intimate sense. 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