The Living Work of Art

I’m realizing lately that the biggest impediment to finishing my novel, perhaps to finishing any work of writing for me, is my emphasis on finishing it. 

Because a novel isn’t just about the finished product. For the writer, that’s just one piece of the puzzle. 

So much of what we do in life is not actually about what we do but how we do it. In my friendships, I don’t strive to just be a friend, I strive to be a perceptive and empathetic friend. When I teach a chess lesson, it’s not about checking off the lesson as completed afterwards, it’s about the teaching moments themselves. And it’s not just about teaching my students to be better chess players, but teaching them all the vast ways one can improve at a skill, showing them that often they are capable of much more than they initially believe they are. It’s not what the moment is but how it’s spent. 

And I’m realizing that it can be the same with writing a book: more about the experience of writing it than the finished product. Your book is a living work of art, starting at the very first inkling of an idea. It’s alive with you. It’s alive every moment you think of it and test a new idea out in your mind. It’s alive every time you slash your pen through a sentence. It’s alive within everyone you share a little piece of it with. It’s alive as creating it makes you into a better writer. 

For a long time, I’ve seen my book as this vision I have in my head that no one will really understand until I’ve finished it. But I think I have to let that go. I think I have to start letting myself share little imperfect pieces of it while it’s in progress, even in this early first draft state. I think I’d been holding myself back in fear that if I share bits of it too early, the seeds of this developing idea will be squashed. 

I think instead letting it see the light of day will help it grow. And help me grow as a writer. And help me connect with others. 

I haven’t yet figured out the details of what about the novel to share or how to do it, but the will is there. I’ll build from that. Stay tuned!