HI Bill: I don't live in Santa Cruz (sorry to say) but I read your "shit mountain" reference and I read Swim in the Pond but don't remember that concept—can you post a quick overview? THANKS!
HI Bill: I don't live in Santa Cruz (sorry to say) but I read your "shit mountain" reference and I read Swim in the Pond but don't remember that concept—can you post a quick overview? THANKS!
Angela: If you have the paperback edition of Swim, it's on pages 108-109. It's when George realizes that he has to write in his own voice (not, for instance, in imitation of Hemingway). He writes that at a certain point in his learning, he had to come down from the mountain of other writers and find his own place, his own voice--and he stumbles through the valley until he comes across a little shit-hill labeled "Saunders Mountain". He ends with this: "...what will make that shit-hill grow is our commitment to it, the extent to which we say, Well, yes, it IS a shit-hill, but it's MY shit-hill, so let me assume that if i continue to work in this mode that is mine, this hill will eventually stop being made of shit, and will grow, and from it, I will eventually be able to see (and encompass in my work) the whole world."
thank you, Mary, it's all coming back to me now—very helpful! I think a lot about what finding your own voice as a musician takes (my clients are musicians) and this perspective is terrific! Owning your own shit—that's the deal.
It's in "Swim", this "shit mountain" thing, you'll find it. But you'll find an expanded & I think better explanation in the text of an address George gave at AWP in 2018 and which appears in "The Writer's Chronicle", Sept 2018 issue, page 38ff. Check the AWP archive. The idea, basically, is an argument against imitation and how George found his own way & how we might also"find our own voice" as he says in the piece. Here's something else George wrote from an essay entitled "Why I Wrote Phil" & which I think is even more helpful: "[I]f a story is compelling line-by-line, then theme, character, politics, etc. will all take care of themselves." Hope this helps.
THANK YOU, Rosanne—very helpful! I LOVED "Swim in the Pond" and I'm always amazed at seeing what sticks with me and what doesn't in anything I read—I'm probably dissociating the portions that strike too close to my biggest challenges!
What a great thread...and exploration of George's Shit Mountain theory from Swim. I love Mary's explanation and now I'm imagining myself hiking in that valley. I've noticed that when I let my character do the talking (instead of me!) something magical starts happening too. And then I'm flying over my own Shit Mountain and seeing the world through my character's eyes and my own (because I made her up!)
HI Bill: I don't live in Santa Cruz (sorry to say) but I read your "shit mountain" reference and I read Swim in the Pond but don't remember that concept—can you post a quick overview? THANKS!
Angela: If you have the paperback edition of Swim, it's on pages 108-109. It's when George realizes that he has to write in his own voice (not, for instance, in imitation of Hemingway). He writes that at a certain point in his learning, he had to come down from the mountain of other writers and find his own place, his own voice--and he stumbles through the valley until he comes across a little shit-hill labeled "Saunders Mountain". He ends with this: "...what will make that shit-hill grow is our commitment to it, the extent to which we say, Well, yes, it IS a shit-hill, but it's MY shit-hill, so let me assume that if i continue to work in this mode that is mine, this hill will eventually stop being made of shit, and will grow, and from it, I will eventually be able to see (and encompass in my work) the whole world."
thank you, Mary, it's all coming back to me now—very helpful! I think a lot about what finding your own voice as a musician takes (my clients are musicians) and this perspective is terrific! Owning your own shit—that's the deal.
It's in "Swim", this "shit mountain" thing, you'll find it. But you'll find an expanded & I think better explanation in the text of an address George gave at AWP in 2018 and which appears in "The Writer's Chronicle", Sept 2018 issue, page 38ff. Check the AWP archive. The idea, basically, is an argument against imitation and how George found his own way & how we might also"find our own voice" as he says in the piece. Here's something else George wrote from an essay entitled "Why I Wrote Phil" & which I think is even more helpful: "[I]f a story is compelling line-by-line, then theme, character, politics, etc. will all take care of themselves." Hope this helps.
THANK YOU, Rosanne—very helpful! I LOVED "Swim in the Pond" and I'm always amazed at seeing what sticks with me and what doesn't in anything I read—I'm probably dissociating the portions that strike too close to my biggest challenges!
What a great thread...and exploration of George's Shit Mountain theory from Swim. I love Mary's explanation and now I'm imagining myself hiking in that valley. I've noticed that when I let my character do the talking (instead of me!) something magical starts happening too. And then I'm flying over my own Shit Mountain and seeing the world through my character's eyes and my own (because I made her up!)
Nice, Dee, keep going with this! Anything (legal?) that gets us flying is good!