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I've been struggling with the third draft of The Next Novel, in part because it has been taking me so long to get these first four chapters moving. It's July already!In off hours, I've been working on a guest blog on the definition of historical fiction, and in going through my files I discovered the first stanza from a wonderful poem by Robert Graves:
To bring the dead to lifeI'm blowing on the embers: blowing, blowing … .
Is no great magic.
Few are wholly dead:
Blow on a dead man's embers
And a live flame will start.
To read the rest of "To Bring the Dead to Life," so evocative of the process of writing historical fiction: click here.
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5 comments:
Great poem, Sandra. Very inspiring.
As I writer myself, I've always found this proverb helpful: "The muse visits upon the act of composition, not before." In other words, put pen to paper and write... something. Before you know it, the ideas will start to flow.
Your fan,
Jordan
Thank you, Jordan. I like you're proverb, too. ... So, back to my desk!
YOUR proverb, I meant! Clearly, the heat has gone to my brain.
Have you read Silence of the Lambs? This poem makes me think of it. I won't be a spoiler yet but the premise of the book is very much like this poem..I am wondering now if perhaps this poem may not have influenced the author in writing the tale. The movie was good too, but you have to read the novel to understand the similarities between the poem and the character who does this very thing in the novel...
Hi 32, Interesting!
No I haven't read or seen the movie Silence of the Lambs. I didn't think I had the stomach for it, but it puts it in a new light linking it to this poem by Graves.
Thank you for your note.
Sandra
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