I blame Ben Affleck. I heard him on the radio last week talking
to Terri Gross about his movie, Argo,
and the conversation turned to doing impersonations. Affleck
does a mean Denzel Washington, a decent Morgan Freeman. Terri asked him how he does it, if it requires
practice. Affleck said, sure, doing
impersonations takes practice, but it’s also a gift. It comes easy. Because of that, he said, he doesn’t like to
do it too much. He compared it to
playing speed chess, where every move is timed and the game moves
super-fast. Back in the day, he and Matt
Damon played a lot until a friend intervened to say this:
“Don’t play speed chess. It will ruin your game.”
That line stuck in my head. It will not go away.
Here’s why:
I write a lot of short essays. I write them because I’m asked to or because I’m
paid to or because I have something I want to say that doesn’t merit twenty
pages … and I write them because they’re easy.
I’m afraid it’s ruining my game.
It’s near sacrilege to say so. Short
nonfiction, like flash fiction, has been all the rage for a long while now, especially
in MFA programs where honing stories down to their essence is seen as excellent
practice, maybe even cutting edge. I’ve
encouraged it myself plenty. (I also daresay,
from a teaching perspective it’s a lot easier to critique 1000 words than 5K … but
no need to be cynical here.) I adore Brevity as much as the next person.
(If you don't know Brevity, definitely check it out -- essays <750 words that amaze. Here's one of mine they published last year: http://brevitymag.com/nonfiction/crush/
I still
think it might be ruining my game.
When I sit down to work on my book project, I
struggle. Part of it is pure endurance. Writing
a book is like training for a marathon.
You need patience and pacing. You
need to think really hard. The answer is
simple, I know: Sit longer. Just like a
long slow run. And, still, no long distance
runner will tell you sprint workouts are useless. They work different muscles. They’re part of the package.
I just don’t want to ruin my game.
Here’s what Ben Affleck said: When you do an impersonation, you use the techniques of acting but don’t get at
the heart; you do the external work but not the deep internal work. The same can be true of writing short
pieces. I want to be vigilant about
that. I need to be. I will be.
But I don't suppose I'll give up Going Short any time
soon. I have a new collection of short
essays, in fact, The Hole in the Snow,
which is very close to finding a home.
“Don’t be afraid to do what comes easy,” says
picture book author and Whidbey colleague Bonny Becker. “It probably means you’re good at it.”
I hope that’s true. I sincerely do.
