I've decorated my desk with a couple of birthday presents I recently received in celebration of my turning 57.
One was a set of inspirational cards, (Isle of View Insight Cards). Next to my computer today is the one that plays off the word BOLD. The letters of the word are a reminder of the message: Believing Opens Life's Dream.
The idea, of course, is: BELIEVE YOU CAN ACHIEVE WHAT YOU WANT AND YOU'LL BE ABLE TO.. I do believe that and I have, pretty much, found it to be so (although the jury's still out on a couple of matters). Much as I believe it, I also find it helpful to be reminded.
Then there's the Lady Godiva cup, which holds enough to feed Lady Godiva's horse, and came with some sumptuous Godiva cocoa. The image--of the naked woman on the horse--also brought along its thousand year-old history: Lady Godiva bared all in order to achieve her purpose.
What she wanted was for her husband, the Earl of Leofric, to lower taxes on the peasantry. He said he'd do it the day she rode through town naked. So she did.
What artists must summon again and again is the courage be as EMOTIONALLY BARE IN OUR WORK AS LADY GODIVA.
So I'm drinking deep out of this mug; of course the chocolate helps too.
And thank you, Joe Burgo and Karen Tam.
3 comments:
Thanks for the nice reminder to bare emotion in our creative work. It still takes me a fair number of drafts to do this with my books, but the process, though difficult, is exhilarating.
I continue to think of my editing process as archeology, the uncovering of "treasure" layer by layer, one section at a time.
Meant to add this:
I have a wonderful book called "A Guide For The Advanced Soul: A Book Of Insight" by Susan Hayward. It is a book of wonderful quotes that I use almost daily for inspiration.
Today's, opened to randomly while thinking of the writing process:
"It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
My process of writing is very similar to your archaeology. It takes me a lot of revisions. I do feel as if I'm digging toward something that is already formed.
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