What haunts you? What images or moments have never left you? What do you keep revisiting again and again and again?
In the latest Glimmer Train bulletin, Melissa R. Sipin discusses how her stories are obsessions over such moments. She writes:
I am that kind of writer. You can call us tortured ones, silly ones, obsessive-compulsive ones that labor over each word and breath and inflection and erase erase erase until that one sentence flies on its own, bleeds into the next one.
No remnant of the first draft has remained, except for the one thing that started it all: my brother’s black question mark tattoo, impressed on his right forearm and four inches in height.
Read the full essay at Glimmer Train. Or, check out these other pieces on the writing life:
- From Myth to Meh by Edwin Rozic
- On Multiple Drafts by DM Gordon
- Polyphony in Fiction: What Is It, and What Is It Good For? by Joe Vastano
Jane Friedman has spent nearly 25 years working in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. She is the editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.
I agree with this mantra “Write what haunts you” for my particular haunt won’t leave me alone, tho’ I;ve tried, mightily, to quiet the Beast.. Yep, that’s right…I periodically go off into other territory (I write my blog at Biddy Bytes, and post other journal pieces in newspapers as paid freelancer,) but the haunting continues–always there, at the back of my mind. The edits are screaming at me, too, to “Get finished!” to the point I’ve lined up 3 important folks in the journalism and medical field to be my readers, so now I MUST deliver. It’s the gun-to-the-head time. Problem for me? My back story keeps getting in the way, and tho’ it’s BIG, it must remain the back story…Then, there’s the age-old problem of: I could edit the daylights out of my work, til it becomes a whole new product. Sometimes, that fact stymies me..
her advice resonates with me at the deepest level. we artists are obsessive creatures. it’s a great thing that we have ART to channel that obsession into.
can’t wait to read her story.
Yes, wonderfully articulated mantra. It’s the way to find your individual voice. We are all haunted and plagued by different images, ideas, encounters, and we must turn them into something, use them. I do this with my music too. It’s the only satisfying way to deal with the most haunting aspects of life!