Via filkferengi, this post from elisem about unfinished projects and creativity. Framed in terms of disability and its affects on finishing things, but I think it applies to all unfinished projects, really, and their importance in the larger creative scheme.
Alvina Ling asks authors how they really feel about revision letters.
Via Shaken and Stirred, Diana Wynne Jones’ on the limitations of writing for adults, and the assumptions that accompany writing for kids and adults alike. This last I could quote from endlessly. Here’s just one bit:
I found myself thinking as I wrote, “These poor adults are never going to understand this; I must explain it to them twice more and then remind them again later in different terms.” Now this is something I never have to think when I write for younger readers. Children are used to making an effort to understand. They are asked for this effort every hour of every school day and, though they may not make the effort willingly, they at least expect it. In addition, nearly everyone between the ages of nine and fifteen is amazingly good at solving puzzles and following complicated plots – this being the happy result of many hours spent at computer games and watching television. I can rely on this. I can make my plots for them as complex as I please, and yet I know I never have to explain them more than once (or twice at the very most).Yes. When I read adult books, I sometimes find myself wondering why the author is spending so much time explaining, when it would be so much more simpler to get on with the story and let the reader figure it out!