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Winged with Death Reviews
The dimensions of a work of art are seldom realized by the author until the work is accomplished. It is like a flowering dream. Ideas grow, budding silently, and there are a thousand illuminations coming day by day as the work progresses. A seed grows in writing as in nature. The seed of the idea is developed by both labor and the unconscious, and the struggle that goes on between them. I understand only particles. I understand the characters, but the novel itself is not in focus. The focus comes at random moments which no one can understand, least of all the author. For me, they usually follow great effort. To me, these illuminations are the grace of labor. All of my work has happened this way. It is at once the hazard and the beauty that a writer has to depend on such illuminations. After months of confusion and labor, when the idea has flowered, the collusion is Divine. It always comes from the subconscious and cannot be controlled. Carson McCullers

Creating a Text – Peggy Payne

john baker, July 24th, 2007. No comments. Filed under blogging, quotations, writing.

What phases are involved in the creation of a text?

I alternate drafts of two types. First, the let-it-pour, fast, intuitive draft. Then the pore-over-it, thoughtful revision.

Then the alternation again. And again…. It takes me a lot of drafts to get there, with both my novels and narrative nonfiction.

My books have to do with spirituality and quirky psychology; I always want to go as deep as I can.

Peggy Payne is the author of Sister India and Revelation; she blogs at: Peggy Payne’s Boldness Blog.

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