Ever failed.
No matter.
Try again.
Fail again.
Fail better.
------ Samuel Beckett
(With my bare hands I ripped up the notes for my NaNoWriMo novel. Then, again with my bare hands, I took a picture of those notes in a wineglass, because somehow I thought that it would make my failure poetic.)
I feel so silly. I can't believe that my big plan was to write a novel of incomparable genius.
One day I am making some off the most important advances in literature since Homer first decided to write a part for Brad Pitt. And the next day, it is December 1st. And what do I have to show for my efforts?
I am not one accustomed to failure.
(...)
(...)
(...)
And NaNoWriMo is no exception.
The great writer Walter Benjamin who was right about everything said, "To great writers, finished works weigh lighter than those fragments on which they labor their entire lives."
Hear that. My whole life. Not November. So back off.
(Swept away by the poetry of the above image, I sort of kicked the glass off my desk when I kicked my feet up on the desk. Because the laptop was blocking my field of vision. While some may view this as another one of my so-called 'failures' Walter Benjamin would certainly see the result as an image that is poetic--if not more poetic than the above image.)
23 comments:
There is creation in destruction.
Sometimes it is more beautiful than what was originally planned for.
-Besides, you could have chosen to not put your words to those sheets of paper.
Then you would have had nothing.
Angst...wine...broken glass...failed manuscript...
Throw in a few neurotic, non-sensical workshoppers and you'd have your own Iowa.
Rhetorically speaking, this post is tropetacular.
Welcome to the failed novelists club. I think it's a big club.
Thanks for the memories,
AG
J. - I'd be glad to give you a signed first edition of my Vampire Lesbian Erotica novel "She Bites Me Hotly". The book goes on sale nationwide in 2 weeks, just in time for xmas! Maybe by flaunting my obvious success in face of your bitter failure it will inspire you to go into an 1980's movie montage and you'll make a comback overnight!
At least you have the torture artist thing going for you.
Okay, is it just me, or is this little fit of Justin's sorta hot? In an academic sorta way. Sorta.
Maleah,
I think everyone agrees with you.
Jack never got this kind of response from the ladies.
Captain B.
I guess we have to wait a whole year for NaNoWriMo to come around again..
finding fair hope:
Oooooh no! They do this every year? I don't know if my sensitive artist soul can take that.
j d
goldennib,
How did you know about my torture artist thing?
BTW, its official name is the Pendulum. I got it on clearance.
jdk
Comrade K,
My tanlines look oddly like your shadow.
j.
Oh, now he's having us picture his tanlines... for the visual thinkers among us this might get interesting.
I was going to make some universal statement of truth and art and broken dreams that would probly have rocked you to your very core and seared through your neurons like molten rain, but then you mentioned your tanlines. And I think maleah's right. So for my lack of articulation you have only your disdainfully crushing wineglass self to blame.
You are poetry in a still photo, Justin.
I can't imagine you being weird in any shape or form, but the fact is you've been tagged.
List six weird things and tag six more people. Otherwise, you will be IT for the rest of your life.
Is that a Cheerio or a peanut in the "broken" picture?
Who said anything about the novels having to be "great"? I've shit out two NaNoWriMo novels and don't feel the urge to show them off. I didn't let a little thing like hoping someone would like them stop me.
Try it! It is fun!
Also, there is no irony or sarcasm intended...
I think the problem with your novel attempt was within (or amidst) the title. The visual poetry and pathos-rhetoric evidenced in this entry beg for the title: When Paper Cuts Glass.
You could take that any direction. The glass is nearly full!
I promise to not use the title in anything I may eventually publish.
No doubt, the chap is totally fair.
Wonderful post. If only I'd of come across something as wise and straightforward when I was starting out! See you at the reading!
Good article, read with great interest.
tropetacular, haha.
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