This is my guiding principle this week.
Spending it all,
JLS
I try to take this quote of Annie Dillard’s deeply to heart as I write fiction:
“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”
If I have a great idea, and if it fits into the…
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YES!
I tend to want to “reserve” good ideas for the next project. But I’m trying to spend it all now and trust there will be more coming!
Agreed. Because when I was in school I switched between projects a lot, I would get very territorial. All of my favorite bits from all of those projects have found their way into my current manuscript.