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| "You can always edit a bad page. But you can't edit a blank page." |
I've been seeing this quote on social media a lot lately, and it's true as far as it goes. But there are hazards involved with filling up a page, and they often go unexamined. Because every word choice constrains the next choice. "A" rather than "an" means that you have eliminated all words with a vowel in the choice of the following word. The word "I've" in at the head of my first sentence locked in the tense for the following clause. The sentence "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" casts an entire novel irrevocably into the past. "Once upon a time" sets us in a fairy tale. "Once upon a time there was a Martian" warns us to reassess what we know about fairy tales. Each choice narrows the options for the next choice. A manuscript becomes a labyrinth that we seed which grows up behind us with alarming swiftness so that when we look back it's already too high to see over the top.
Can't we go back? Can't we change "A" to "an"? Of course. But then we must change "pachyderm" to "elephant", which is not quite the same thing. And the further we advance, the more we may need to change, the more tremors are sent out under the structure we're creating, and what if it's not a word we need to change, but a sentence, a page, a chapter? There comes a point where we must change our nail scissors for hedge clippers, or a bundle of dynamite. Then, if you use too much blasting powder, the whole edifice may come down around your head.
Which is not to say that you can't edit a bad page. You must edit a bad page, and you will have many bad pages. And chances are good you may need that bundle of dynamite. Writing is a dangerous business, not for the faint of heart. If, at the end of building your house, you take off your blindfold to discover that you have positioned the toilet in the kitchen, adjustments will have to be made.
So while you're contemplating the vast ocean of the blank page, take some time to appreciate its calm, unrelenting beauty. Then recall that there are more vessels under the waves than atop them.
