*--Otherwise known as the other Big W Question
I’m
re-reading a lovely collection of successful writers’ accounts, called WHY WE WRITE. It serves as a nice break between
revisions, and for some reason I believe I deserve a break.
I
enjoy the take of these incredibly talented and phenomenally successful folks
on why and how they do what they do. From my humble perch, I recognize the
process, and feel closer to some than to others.
It
was something Armistead Maupin said about the “why” that struck not only a
nerve, but turned the light switch to illuminate, at least for me. I quote:
“I write to explain
myself to myself. It’s a way of processing my disasters, sorting out the messiness
of life to lend symmetry and meaning to it.”
Life’s
journey is understood in stories. In fiction we can organize the twists, and
make the hairpin turns be more than pointless moments of extreme anxiety, but part
of the whole. Everything fits, all for a reason, and endurance is heroic.
I
also love that Maupin used the word symmetry. I’m a sucker for symmetry. I
had spent many years working with traditional textiles, and getting comfort from their
use of symmetry.
18th Century embroidery
from Karabagh
I
have a writing friend who is a master puzzle-maker. Puzzles work this way as
well; everything fits, and one thing ties to another. The anxiety of solving a
puzzle, persevering while mulling the clues, can be exasperating. But in the
end every square is filled, everything in place, and, to use a famous quotation
from Robert Browning—
God’s
in his heaven, all’s right with the world.
