Showing posts with label Gertrude Stein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gertrude Stein. Show all posts

Thursday, January 21, 2010

in search of merriment

What a gorgeous day! Snow weights the pine branches like those in my childhood paint-by-number paintings. Blue sky stretches over forest, field and pond. I walk. It’s a feel-good day. In my window, sunlight powers the gears of my new rainbow maker. They rotate the crystals, and light flashes, separating into all its colors.

What we need is a solar cell for writing. Input a manuscript and see it instantly separated into its parts. No, I don’t mean the readability programs that leave no room for creative expression. What I want is a device that tells me where the plot is weak, what sensory details I’ve neglected to use, which character needs more development. If there is anything like that out there, maybe I wouldn’t trust it. Back to the shrunken manuscript and trying to channel Gertrude Stein – “In the midst of writing there is merriment.”