Bob's Write from the Start: Art Is Long And Life Is Short

Bob's Write from the Start

Bob’s Write from the Start, a blog sharing the roller coaster ride of this renewing writer’s feelings and actual experiences, began March 2017. That January, I began with a two-sentence contribution to a local Writing Group. I am now a Guest Columnist for a local paper and have contributed to small and online magazines. My comments for new and renewing writers? Start by starting. Join a writing group. You are unique but not alone. Once you start work, you will not be in Kansas anymore.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Art Is Long And Life Is Short

This aphorism (and you thought I didn't know big words) originally meant something like 'It takes a very long time to learn a particular discipline and there is so little time left to practice it' or, perhaps, 'A work of art lasts longer than a human life.'

Grace Paley, I'm told and intend to find out soon for myself, wrote wonderful short stories. When she was asked why she had not published as many stories, poems and essays as she might have, she responded "Art is too long and life is too short" by which she meant she was also a wife, mother teacher, feminist activist, anti-war demonstrator, and so forth.

All of these perspectives on the phrase strike me as true. At the same time, it is also true that I wake up many mornings thinking 'That's the word I should have used' or 'Will I never get this so and so thing finished?', or 'Maybe if I wrote it this way instead'.

In a conversation she had with Auden when she was 17, Grace Paley discovered, through his kind feedback to her on some of the poems she had written, not to imitate, to find your own voice as a writer. This seems to be a constant message (OK, sermon) from established writers of all kinds.

Art is long; life is short; use your own voice. OK, OK, I get it.
Now, back to that newspaper article I'm writing. I'm actually making some progress.

First, I will give our five-year-old grandson a bath.

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About Me

Name: Bob's Write From The Start

Location: Sarnia, Ontario, Canada

Born, raised and living in Sarnia, Ontario, Bob Boulton began writing poetry, short stories and humorous articles for his high school newspaper in the period just after dinosaurs roamed the earth. His article on the mysteries of the Chess Club was particularly well-received. Bob’s excruciatingly naive teenage sonnet was published with positive mention in the high school yearbook. In University he wrote pretty much indecipherable essays on Existentialism and Phenomenology. Then, early in his working career, Bob also wrote short feature articles in the now-defunct (not his fault) Weston York Times. For this, he was paid $5.00 per article, which didn’t quite cover his transportation and parking costs. Then after a short break of thirty-five or forty years as an executive and leadership coach, Bob reactivated his passion for writing. The alternatives he considered were learning to yodel or trying to play the bagpipes. Bob’s loving and supportive family voted enthusiastically, and quickly, for writing.