Time is the best editor.
If you have it, time is the easiest trick for self-editing. Simply put your work away long enough so when you come back to it you can see it with fresh eyes.
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Time is the best editor. If you have it, time is the easiest trick for self-editing. Simply put your work away long enough so when you come back to it you can see it with fresh eyes.
The mathematical genius Alexander Grothendieck once had a metaphor for solving problems. He suggested that instead of forcing open an impossibly hard kernel with a hammer and chisel, one should simply let it sit in water and wait. Over time, the shell softens and opens with ease. This is also true in writing; time is the only non-substitutable... See more
Epiphanies Come From Waiting
“You need time. And that doesn’t mean necessarily even working full-time on it itself; it means time to throw some ideas together and let them sit, go off and do something else, come back and see what still feels right.”
–Christopher Nolan
–Christopher Nolan
Britton Perelman • Just a moment...
A writing example: when I look back in my notes I realize so much of what I write about today I was ruminating about 2-3 years ago. I always knew what I was going to say. I just didn’t have the tools, I didn’t have the maturity, I didn’t have the language or sensitivity to beauty to recognize what that was. So much of what I learned was latent,... See more