ideas – Page 17 – Andrew Careaga

Beginner’s mind and the writer

Perhaps for the writer, beginner’s mind can begin with the notion of writing as a journey, an exploration with no specific destination in mind.

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,

but in the expert’s there are few.

— Shunryu Suzuki

I’ve only been at this creative writing thing for a year, but sometimes I forget that I’m a beginner. With that in mind, I’m trying to embrace and understand anew the concept of beginner’s mind. So in an attempt to wipe the slate clean, I’m going back to the beginning, or near beginning, of this writing journey by republishing a post from exactly a year ago. I post it to remind myself how much I need to still unlearn — and to remind me that I ain’t no guru.

On repurposing content from novels and other longer works

How to ‘let bits of your work see the light of day’

Note: This post has been revised to incorporate information about serialization that I’d overlooked previously.

This week, as I hunker indoors amidst a deep freeze here in Middle America, I’ve also been wading into the thick slog of my novel in progress (NIP). It’s been slow going at times, as I press on through the morass, a bit like an explorer who has lost his compass and looks backward to see if it’s too late to turn back. It feels daunting and lonely, and in more than once I’ve wondered if the slog is worth it.