Seek funny leaps
Remember that Kathy Acker was big on task work, too: “I really didn’t want any creativity,” she said, “so I set up this task, this nutty task basically, and I’d do it!”
Mason Currey • Seek funny leaps
Lately, when I’m stuck on a piece, I will print everything I’ve written and re-read it with a pair of scissors in hand. As I go, I will cut out the pieces that feel like they’re working: a phrase here, a sentence there, entire paragraphs if I’m lucky. Then I’ll lay out all the cut-out pieces on my desk and move them around, trying to find the right... See more
Mason Currey • Seek funny leaps
He said that it’s a very good idea that after you write a little bit, stop and then copy it. Because while you’re copying it, you’re thinking about it, and it’s giving you other ideas. And that’s the way I work. And it’s marvelous, just wonderful, the relationship between working and copying.
Mason Currey • Seek funny leaps
WORKING AND COPYING
One last thing: Tessa Hadley’s advice about copying reminds me of John Cage’s advice for composers, as relayed by his friend and fellow composer Morton Feldman—it was “the most important advice anybody ever gave me,” Feldman told a lecture audience in 1984.
Look at how the writers you love are doing things, and then copy them. I’m such a believer in copying. When I was teaching writing, I used to say: “Leave off this paragraph of an Elizabeth Bowen story; write the next paragraph.” And they all thought that they were copying Elizabeth Bowen. It didn’t sound like her at all. It sounded like them, but... See more