05 January 2004
New Year
In Amor Mundi Christina Rosetti wrote:
'This downhill path is easy, but there's no turning back.'
It's today's quotation in the database of Labyrinth quotations. It has a special significance for me as I embark on the editing process for my novel.
Do you remember - as a child - spoiling your best pictures by not knowing when to stop? Or do you recognise the truth in something I once heard a sculptor say? She was asked about the unfinished look of most of her work.
'It's not knitting,'
she replied, peeved.
Editing is hard, for me. Some authors say it's the fun part, tweaking and polishing. Perhaps they are immune to doubt. Perhaps their minds are already on their next project and their enthusiasm for the process is fuelled by that.
Then there's the prospect of criticism. Daunting.
But I want comment. I want this book to be as good as I can make it and I know that outside comment is a part of that. Daunting, yes.
The Labyrinthquotation at the end of the week comes from Alice Meynell's The Modern Poet:
'I come from nothing; but from where
Come the undying thoughts I bear?'
Once you reach the centre of the Labyrinth, the path leads only out.
