Notebook - Finishing One Book and Starting Another

Notebook
From a writing standpoint, finishing one book and beginning work on another is like experiencing a sudden change in consciousness. The familiar landmarks are gone, the old rules of thinking no longer apply, and comfortable habits are awkward and out of place. To move ahead, the writer must either forget what he knows and discover a whole new language, or be trapped in a deadly cycle of repetition. A new work should be more than challenging. It should be dangerous. It should threaten the writer�s mental health (the highest form of sanity) and make him feel he has everything to lose if he fails. It should leave him both exhausted and exhilarated (a sign of vitality), disturb his sleep, and render him prone to emotional outbursts that occasionally leave him babbling. What happens, meanwhile, to the work that was just completed? It goes on living, and becomes larger and more dynamic each time it is read. It outgrows the limitations of its author by absorbing part of all who encounter it, who in turn add to its meaning and carry it forward in their daily lives, until it resurfaces as inspiration for new work somewhere else. And what happens to the writer? Little by little, he survives in a way that is so glorious, it kills him. It is an old story, but no one has improved on it yet � not even God Himself, who appears as a minor character in much great writing, and a major character in much lesser writing, and can be seen lurking about on the dark street corners of some of the dullest writing of all time, trying to bum a smoke.	Also by William Michaelian POETRY Winter Poems ISBN: 978-0-9796599-0-4 52 pages. Paper. �� Another Song I Know ISBN: 978-0-9796599-1-1 80 pages. Paper. �� Cosmopsis Books San Francisco Signed copies available Main Page Author�s Note Background A Listening Thing Among the Living No Time to Cut My Hair One Hand Clapping Songs and Letters Collected Poems Early Short Stories Armenian Translations Cosmopsis Print Editions Interviews News and Reviews Highly Recommended Let�s Eat Favorite Books & Authors Useless Information Conversation Flippantly Answered Questions E-mail & Parting Thoughts
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