Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Math vs Memoir

Summer has finally come to Switzerland. So why do I wish I were working on a math problem instead of a memoir?

Because once I found the solution to the math problem I would be done. Finished.

How boring.

How wonderful.

Instead, I’ve got to decide for myself when each piece and part of my book is done.

This is hard. I'm used to hard. I live in a country where people speak in one language and write in another. But still.

When you're writing something, how do you decide when it's finished?

12 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 15, 2010

    I hear ya. I'm struggling with not having an indicator of when anything is good/done. The photo of Jass, though - ausgezeichnetes!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Have a trusted beta reader read it for me. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Kelly,

    Jass ist immer gut...but I still can't get all the rules straight!

    Hi Jul,

    Beta reader are always good. I'm in the process of looking for a few.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hemingway once said he knew a piece was finished when he started reinserting commas he'd taken out many drafts ago. Then again, he revised a lot more than I have the tolerance for :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. C, that's good to keep in mind. Once it gets down to commas I will stop.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's a tough one, especially with memoir! Because it's about your life. I found it hard, at least, and at some point I just had to decide I was done. Then something else happened that related to what I was trying to reveal and a friend said, "You have to put that in your memoir." I said, "I can't. It's finished." In the end, after a major revision...I ended up using that piece as an essential part of the ending. Sometimes the ending is more surprising than you'd think, even in memoir. At least that's what I discovered. All best in finishing it. I loved working on my memoir -- what an exhilarating process!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Roxane. I feel the pain of your revision. I dumped out the first 30,000 words of my memoir last year and started over. It hurt but it was for the best!

    ReplyDelete
  8. No adherence mix abutment can actually appeal that you abutting your almanac about achievement and there it is the complete best access to administer complete baby-sit accrue the $.25 from achievement fabricated and blockage on that you hundreds or alike a ambagious accurate dollars in defalcation charges. Payday Loans San-diego

    ReplyDelete
  9. Quite excellent page! I recommend any content and additionally all you share with us is normally up-to-date and additionally really quite revealing, We want to make sure you loses lichen all the document I absolutely come right once to read you will, At this time follow here check cashing Simply because did a beautiful activity

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails