Pottery and Writing

[pegkerr]

I have, many times at conventions, compared writing to working on a potter's wheel.

Here is an excellent post explaining why. Found it here cross-posted on readers_list.

Comments

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that link. I'm not going to comment on the original, because there are already two pages of comments there, which I think is plenty. But it's very clear and very good. It makes a great deal of sense.

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

As a writer and a potter - She's right in one thing, in that writers sometimes over-edit and fidget just because they're working in a medium where they can get away with it.

But she also underestimates how many ways there are to fix an off kilter pot after it's left the wheel (If the problems are things like being slightly askew, being too thick, or being varied thicknesses, rather than things like falling over entirely - but there's a lot more that can be done above and beyond "Slapping on a handle". And in fact, those are the moments the inspired potter can come out with the coolest stuff). She's dead on about what you can and can't do while it's on the wheel, but there's far more to pottery than the throwing alone.

My favourite thing about pottery is that it's so easy to push to failing on purpose. You can try doing something you've been told can't be done, just to see how close you can get (Which sometimes, is to get the thing itself). The clay, if it fails, just collapses, gets cut off and re-used. It doesn't cost you any materials, it takes so little time, and in several other ways feels so much less like a total waste than it does when you try it with prose.

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

I loved this when she first posted it; I'm glad it's getting deserved attention.