I sympathize with Rig in this respect; the turgid mass of second-rate books that assault the average agent's desk must be an awful load to shift in the hopes of finding one clear voice in the wrack of a thousand muddy ones. I have seen samples on writer's blogs of very bright and creative ideas from people as young as sixteen, promising and vivid, but spotty in their inexperience and their inability to leave things out.

Being weal in this respect myself, I hesitantly contemplate the art of anti-writing--the telling composition of the things you do not include. I am approaching the conclusion that the art of writing works on balancing these two universes, being constantly torn between the world of things made explicit and the much larger, much more forceful collection of the carefully omitted.

I think this is one reason why writers often say that writing is hard. The final pages are so few compared to the reams left out.


A