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I am struggling and a half with a personal essay I am trying to write. The deadline isn't until mid-October, but here I am, convinced I should be able to bang out something poetic in a couple of hours and I just can't.
The problem of course is that the thing that makes the story compelling is matters of serendipity, which means that the tale is not a narrative, but a collection of disparate elements. Unfortunately, one of those elements, the punchline element is something of an obscure factoid, leading me to the worst fucking sin in such essays - boring explanations of crap. Throw in all the other crap that makes the story perfect, and it becomes a long drawn out narrative about something you don't care about.
It's making me crazy.
I seem to write it fine in my head walking around the street, but when I get to the keyboard it's all over. I discovered the voice memo feature on my cell phone last night. It only lets me take one minute chunks, but perhaps that will help. The main thing I must solve is "What is the nature of the story?" and then I must be willing to omit all elements that don't speak to that and bend others to fit more closely. I think I've figured it out, but the thing is still pissing me off.
Had lots of great food at the Cow last night and a lovely time with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
orien and sola.
One of the eight zillion checks I am waiting on arrived, but it was one of the really small ones, so that's less exciting that it could have been, but I suppose represents progress in the movement of the world.
The problem of course is that the thing that makes the story compelling is matters of serendipity, which means that the tale is not a narrative, but a collection of disparate elements. Unfortunately, one of those elements, the punchline element is something of an obscure factoid, leading me to the worst fucking sin in such essays - boring explanations of crap. Throw in all the other crap that makes the story perfect, and it becomes a long drawn out narrative about something you don't care about.
It's making me crazy.
I seem to write it fine in my head walking around the street, but when I get to the keyboard it's all over. I discovered the voice memo feature on my cell phone last night. It only lets me take one minute chunks, but perhaps that will help. The main thing I must solve is "What is the nature of the story?" and then I must be willing to omit all elements that don't speak to that and bend others to fit more closely. I think I've figured it out, but the thing is still pissing me off.
Had lots of great food at the Cow last night and a lovely time with
orien and sola.One of the eight zillion checks I am waiting on arrived, but it was one of the really small ones, so that's less exciting that it could have been, but I suppose represents progress in the movement of the world.