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Writing
Good writing sinks, no ripples nor meniscus. The water takes it without complaint. Good writing dislodges no riverbed stones.
Take yards of words and barricade the river, pour heavy berms to stem the flow, riprap the banks. Come the storm, your work will wash away. A handful of words tossed with force enough will lacerate the surface, raise a loud SCAUP. Spray will wet the far bank. Crests and troughs scatter upstream and down.
Good writing makes no noise; no droplets arc bright into the air. It is written, it slides seamless past the surface, it nestles in the gravel of the bar. A slight, subtle deflection, but the river changes course.
The best writing does not sink at all, but grazes the surface there, and farther there, a skein of lazy parabolas, and lands on the far bank unwet.
Posted by: Chris Clarke
Note: A database glitch in 2008 ate a bunch of archived comments. Don't be offended if yours isn't here, or confused if the conversation seems disjointed. Thanks!
No fair ! Now I want to be a writer, and I’m just an artist. :p
By: By alsis39.75 on 2006 03 15
Mmm. I like this.
By: By Rachel Shaw on 2006 03 15
We all know about that somewhat nonsensical tree in the forest, but does good writing exist without the reader???
By: By spyder on 2006 03 15
just an artist
oh, silly, silly alsis39.75
By: By Chris Clarke on 2006 03 20
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