I got some work done last night to compensate for my brain freeze yesterday morning. This Inhuman essay had been stumping me. I’d written about 1200 words of a 3000 word piece, but I didn’t feel like I’d decided what to say yet or how to approach the article. All I was doing was putting down words and paragraphs.
During the day I realized what the article was missing, did some research, copied and pasted some quotes and related information into a research document and tackled the article again. It’s far from finished, but I think I understand better what it is I intend to write. I’ve created a bunch of jigsaw puzzle pieces and now all that remains is to put them together in the right places. Before this revelation, I didn’t have the pieces or the picture, just intent, which isn’t enough to write something coherent. Not for me, anyway. Essays need a purpose, a hypothesis, a point, and I didn’t have one until yesterday…only words.
Here is Jonathan Carroll’s blog. I’ve enjoyed almost all of his books and look forward to Glass Soup, which should be out in the next five or six weeks. (The first chapter is available at his web site.) The blog–wow. He’s an observer and a reporter of the human condition. Little vignettes that pack a wallop. Take a few minutes and read his August entries. Most of them are brief, but potent.
