Writing by hand

Thinkings and poems 1 Minute

5230546https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/08/laura-van-den-berg-by-heart/567964/

 

“Being able to sit in that space of unfinishedness is so important to the creative process. Writers, and artists more generally, have to have a high threshold for that. You don’t have to be born with it. It’s a capacity you can develop. Temperamentally, I’m not very comfortable sitting in that space of uncertainty, so it’s something I’m always consciously working on—something that being a novelist has demanded. My first two books were collections of short stories, and with stories the composition process is so much more compressed. But my first novel [Find Me] and The Third Hotel were deep morasses of uncertainty that went on for years and years. The process really asks that of you. I learned to get better at sitting in those spaces of unfinishedness.

For me, that’s often easier in the morning. In an ideal scenario, I would work every morning up until lunchtime. I also have a full-time teaching job, so during the semesters that isn’t going to be possible every day of the week. But when I can, I try to get up fairly early, when the sun’s still rising, when email is quiet, and when much of the world is still asleep. You’re still a bit closer to the dream space of sleep, and the part of the mind that fiction comes from feels a little more accessible. All the weird jellyfish that floated closer to the surface of thought while I’ve been asleep are more available. When I invite them to show themselves, they do. And I think those jellyfish would be pushed down by the demands of the day if I waited until late afternoon or evening to try to write.”

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Published by Katherine

Poetry writer and author

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