Yvon Chouinard, the mastermind behind the Patagonia clothing company, used to quote somebody even more famous, but I forget who. I don’t suppose that’s the point…
Anyway, the point was this: Mr. Chouinard thinks about designing clothes like sculpting. To sculpt a horse, alls ya do is get a big block of granite, and then chip off the parts that don’t look like a horse.
In his clothing line, he’s a firm believer in lopping off stuff that doesn’t add to the function. I know this because I worked for him for 8 years, when the company was much smaller than today. Those were interesting times…
Your book, that masterpiece your working on? You know the one. Maybe this theory what would make it a bestseller. Alls ya gots to do is cut out those parts that aren’t bestseller-like, and replace them with parts that are. Jeepers, Mr. Reinhart, that’s so easy!
I just printed out, double-spaced, my rewrite of the rewrite of the rewritten version of rewrite number three of Droppington Place, called A MAN OUT OF TIME. My character has created a world that sits “between the pages of time, as if between the pages of a book,” you see. Plus, his clock is running out. Out of time in both situations. Get it? Jeepers, Mr. Reinhart, you sure are clever!
Really, I’m chipping away at this godforsaken video project, revising and reworking and cleaning and editing and… the list goes on and on.
It will be right when the last pieces of not-this-video get chipped off.
Just like the books we’re writing, yes? Just as soon as we edit out all those not-bestseller turns of phrase and ideas…and then: What’s that you say, Barnes and Noble? You need another million copies? Whoa, there… save some for the fishes!
Jeepers, Mr. Reinhart. You’re NUTS!
John D Reinhart 