Liberating Your Book From the Sculpting Stone

Since Elizabeth Spann Craig lives in North Carolina, I’m including a photo I took there on my cross-country road trip. This is the modest view George Vanderbilt had of the Asheville countryside at his Biltmore estate.

Michelangelo believed the art of sculpting was liberating existing art from hiding. I cite that belief in a new guest post on the remarkable blog by Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Titled “Allowing Your Book to be True to Itself,” I share a story familiar to longtime readers of The Artist’s Road, namely the years-long process by which an effort to write a journalistic account of my cross-country U.S. road trip interviewing musicians, visual artists, writers and other creatives shifted toward memoir writing. The result was Committed: A Memoir of the Artist’s Road, as well as occasional bouts of agita.

I believe all creatives are seeking to liberate their art from metaphorical stone, and just like stone-carving, a lot of work and dedication is involved in the process. You also have to know what that stone’s composition is. Mine was largely fear of writing about others, and myself. My hope is that this guest post helps others to both better see the art they are seeking to liberate, as well as what needs to be cleared in order to reach that art.

And yes, I seem to be writing a lot of guest posts for others lately. It’s what folks like to call a blogging tour; since my book is about a real tour, I know how fanciful and wishful using “tour” with guest blogging is. But I have another one coming up on November 14th on the fantastic blog by K.M. Weiland called Helping Writers Become Authors. Stay tuned!