Monday, January 31, 2011
Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird writes, "Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't - and in fact you're not supposed to - know exactly wha the picture is supposed to look like until it has finished developing." What a great image. Noodling with my Remembered Event first draft, so much more has come back to me.
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I can definitely understand where she is coming from when she says this. When you first take a picture on a Polaroid it is very blurred and nothing can be seen. When you are doing a rough draft those same things tends to happen. You really don’t know what you want to say, nothing seems to make any sense. But when the pictured is finished it is flawless and I guess that’s what a final draft is supposed to be flawless.
ReplyDeleteYes. She Really puts things in perspective. When i read this i thought it was a great way to put it. You could almost see the polaroid devoloping along side a story. Sometime you really never know where the story may be going or what the picture might look like until it's done.
ReplyDeleteMaryKay, I so glad you posted Annie Dillard's perspective. Writing IS like watching a Polaroid develop. Even with poetry, I never know the total outcome till the words build and make my point clear! Great imagery!
ReplyDeleteAnne Lamott, CarolAnn ;>)
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, Polaroids start off as a mystery until being fully developed to see what work of art you have captured. That definitely is a perspective every ESCCGraphomanic's member should keep in mind!!!lol
ReplyDeleteAh, we all show our age. Will younger kids even know what a polaroid is (was)?
ReplyDelete