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June 21, 2005
Writing ironies
That title is intended in both of its possible meanings.
To wit: Writing a writer's handbook is a fantastic exercise in irony, over and over. I get hung up as I write, taking waaaay too long to draft a section. Some I just fly through, but others I agonize over. It can take me days to draft a single section of a single chapter. And right now, as I'm stalled on the section on types of claims, rasslin with doing it this way and that and not satisfied with any of the results, I realize to my great shame—and I can feel my face flush as I realize it—that I am not following my own advice. I have just finished drafting a section that advises student writers not to allow themselves to stall; when you run into a block, just work around it or work on something else, and then return later, fresh, to the place where you hit the wall. Do I follow that advice myself? Nyet, I do not.
Why? Because handbooks are a tissue of lies? I think not. I think actually that I'm writing all sorts of good stuff for this handbook, but that the handbook articulates a set of ideals that no writer actually observes all the time. So in that sense it's not ironic but good that I'm writing this handbook, because I'm not only telling other writers all the stuff I know about writing, but I'm also reminding myself of it. Kind of like when my therapist advised me to take a small piece of paper, write "Let me think about it," on it, and tape it to my computer screen, to remind myself not to say "yes" to all the alluring opportunities that come my way, so that I'm not always, always, always working far behind deadlines and feeling way, way bad about it.
So. Types of claims? Screw em. I'll go on to induction and deduction, and return to this pesky section tomorrow. With clean hands and a pure heart that has not lifted its soul up to vanity nor sworn deceitfully. (Sorry; that's a joke for all you Presbyterians out there.)
Posted by senioritis at June 21, 2005 04:47 PM