. . . I save scraps. I save notes I've scribbled to myself at odd moments on post-its and notepads and index cards. I save outlines and plot synopses that have raced through my thoughts onto paper in the course of half an hour. I save little articles from newspapers about ex-cons robbing convenience stores and making their getaway in a ... wheelchair. I save announcements of writing contests and grant deadlines and hole-in-the-wall literary journals looking for contributions. I save scenes I've drafted ten times. I save xeroxes of short stories and essays about writing. I save articles about global warming and space colonies, about zealots left and right. I save anecdotes about guys who keep pastures full of old Studebakers, I save handouts about being a good shoe salesman and, well, about anything I've ever had the remotest idea for a story about (but I almost never save anything that anyone gives to me with the comment, "You should write a story about this."--why should I save their obsession? I have plenty of my own). In my better moments I file the notes and scraps away in file cabinets somewhat neatly, but many other times I just toss them on my desk or into a corner and stir through them at odd times as if I am making compost, or stew.
But this is all too unfocussed, too much scribbling and too little writing, too much shoring these fragments against my ruins and too little blessed rage for order. What really happens is that . . . . .
Abstract | Bibliography | Glossary | "Holier Than Thou" | Project Entrance "Notes" used in "Holier Than Thou"
Initial release: April 2, 1996
Last update: June 11, 1996