DITCHWALK

A Road Less Traveled

Topics / Books / Docs

About / Archive / Contact

Copyright © 2002-2023 Mark Barrett 

Home > ~ Tangents > Burning Desire

Burning Desire

October 4, 2010 By Mark 2 Comments

I had occasion over the weekend to dig through some old boxes of scripts and stories I wrote years ago. I found some duplicate copies and stuff I no longer cared about and decided to get right of the dead weight.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard about writers burning their early works, but it seems to have been a fairly common occurrence. And I can understand the appeal. Fire as metaphor and ritual seems to be a human constant, signaling everything from death to purification to rebirth.

I had about five thousand pages to dispose of, and believe me, I wanted to burn them. I wanted the act, the warmth of the fire, and the ashes. Particularly the ashes.

Because we live in a world dying from greenhouses gasses, such things are frowned upon these days, and recycling is the norm. So I recycled.

But I wanted to look into that fire.

— Mark Barrett

Filed Under: ~ Tangents, Fiction Tagged With: fire, writing

«   Cover Design Week Conclusion  |   Snooki and the Real Writer   »

Comments

  1. Cheryl Anne Gardner says

    October 4, 2010 at 3:33 pm

    Yea, the paper shredder just doesn’t have the same overall effect.

    Reply
    • Ditchwalk says

      October 4, 2010 at 4:42 pm

      True story:

      I thought about whether I needed to shred or not. Then I had this absurd thought that somebody might come across the writing while it was being recycled, see my name, look me up on the web, and offer me a four-book/two-picture deal.

      But it gets better.

      After shaking my head at the thought of anyone caring about (or stealing) my discarded work, the image of a desperate agent/editor came to me. I saw him hiding inside a recycling bin, looking over pieces of paper in the dead of night with a small penlight in his teeth. He hadn’t eaten in days, his clothes were a mess, but he was sure he was going to make a discovery that would bring him a four-book/two-picture deal.

      It was at that point that I smiled.

      Reply

Comment Policy: Ditchwalk is a wild place, but not without tending. On-topic comments are welcomed, appreciated and preserved. Off-topic or noxious comments are, like invasive species, weeded out.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *