Modest shapes

Whenever I come across an interesting idea, I hear my mind’s chatter, “This would be a great book.” I can envision the book cover with a big, bold, title. The feeling is captivating, almost euphoric; I call it a creative fever. A few moments, or perhaps days, later, I realize that I’m not going to have the time and energy to write it at this moment; maybe I never will. My hands are full, and life is too short. That fever turns into grief. This process takes place in a similar spirit to how Visakan Veerasamy describes his unfinished drafts as having “grandiose shapes.” He explains, “They’re conceptualized from the beginning in ways that require a lot of time and energy to finish, and would also require quite a lot from my readers.” Several years ago, I realized that focusing on agility as a writer can be useful. A couple of years after that, I started writing every day at this blog. This practice is training my brain to take big ideas and, instead of putting them into a grandiose shape…