​The Way It Is:

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I’m finding that every blank page I sit down at to write into turns out to be not blank at all, but actually quite full. It contains every possible text on every possible topic in every possible place or time I can possibly write in on or about. It may sound odd but writing for me is not so much about laying words on the  page as it is removing blank spaces. It is starting to seem to me that my relationship between the blank page, the final text written, and the act of “writing” are quite like what Michelangelo felt his was to his art, as expressed in his quote; “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” This applies directly to the way we compose texts now; “The desired text is already complete within the blankness spread over the page, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to clear away the superfluous emptiness concealing it.”

All the possible texts to be written are out there waiting. Just clear away this and that as the outline appears and that and this and the final words will line by line emerge. This is the zone I enter when I sit down at the keys. What comes is always surprising. There is no other way to accurately describe the process.