I Can See Clearly Now....

I went to have my eyes tested a couple of weeks ago and as I have at least three different things wrong with them, it was quite a challenge for the optician. She put one of those glasses -- as -- cages contraptions on my nose and then added in so many lenses that I could hardly hold my head up. After that, she fiddled and twiddled them and there was this extraordinary moment when, lo and behold, everything came miraculously into focus and I could read, ooh, three or four lines of letters on the far side of the room.

I thought afterwards that it is a little bit like rewriting / editing. You hack and hack and hack - move this scene here then move it back again; chuck that one; cut that one in half; discard, discard, discard; rewrite; cut; move to the next chapter; rewrite; change the beginning; rewrite the rewrite; ditch the end - until suddenly (lo and behold) everything comes miraculously into focus and the story as you want to tell it emerges before your very eyes.

I've had students say to me, "I could go on rewriting forever, how do you know when to stop?" but somehow you do know; you know.  The months and years you have spent nose to nose with your narrative mean that you have become so finely attuned to it that you know there is nothing more that you can do.

It's a bit like a child leaving home: you drop them at their new flat and they don't want you to help them with the unpacking, they just want you to leave them on their own to get on with things. It means your job is done.

Which means in turn that you must find a new door to open...

A door that Rothko might have painted?