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I love the mess left behind after this work.

I rarely throw the scraps away. When doing this work (which is very controlled: remember, my overarching rule is to use only these two magazines) the value of sentences, fonts, colors, and words—even letters—is greatly increased.

I call this, the economy of words. Some day, I will deplete all of the words in these two magazines—will I? When will I find the last appearance of a word? The last ampersand, the last controversy, the last love?

The other day, I was looking for the word, “GHOST,” and I could not find it. I really needed the word. I looked and looked. Finally, I found ghostly in a very small italic font, which is absolutely close enough, but it freaked me out: no more ghosts in these magazines. The last ghost.

I will probably write more about this, later. For now, consider the economy of words in your writing. They are the one thing we as writers feel are limitless: you get all the words you can type. But, what if? What if we didn’t? Continue reading “Sculpture from the Driver’s Seat” →