February 11, 2009

Reset and Retool




Model for Prora, Hitler’s gigantic Strength Through Joy hotel. Used with permission by Geoff Walden.



Himself: Walked, ate less, smiled.

Herself: Swam, huddled in the cold, wrote, cooked and read. Very unproductive day.

Balance: Knowing there is another day upcoming.

Caught my attention: Most of my spare time lately has been spent here doing research at Third Reich in Ruins, Geoff Walden’s superb pages on the architecture of the Third Reich.

There are days you feel the complete fool. I had one of those dawning moments the evening before last. By yesterday morning, the idea had grown to a certainty.

I’d spent a day and a half working on that long piece “In Search of Nazi Architecture.” Yes, I began to make changes…tho not to the contents but to the structure. Get rid of the dry academic stuff and move the piece into the personal….and it was working when a dawning idea crept up on me. Had I read this to the class before? One question led to another. When had I first written the piece?

A little simple research plus a phone call found my answers. I’d written the piece in July. From now on, I put this information in the header. I dared to wake Marion B, and she remembered my reading the piece in class. This information too in the header. When did I write the piece? Published and where? Read and to who?

If nothing else, rewriting the piece showed me how much I had grown in my new craft. After lunch I began hacking and adding to the Prora piece….enjoying the fact that I seem to retain writing information far easier than I ever retained art techniques.

And too, entering all the pertinent information in the header.....She says hitting herself upside the head....jogging the memory a bit.

1 comment:

  1. Hey, I'm always asking myself "didn't I already write that?" and then spending an hour looking for it. Sometimes I find that I didn't! I like to think of myself as a real writer now that I'm written so much I can't even remember it all. And I find my professors were right all along--the more the write the better you write. When you begin to figure out your own mistakes, you're practically there!

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