Some things should get wasted

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George Garrett, novelist and mentor to many a writer, gave me some soothing advice when I once complained that, in the writing process, some of the best passages get cut from the draft. There are various reasons why this happens -- the essay changes direction and that passage is no longer relevant to the argument, or, let’s face it, that passage was never very good in the first place. Then George advised me, ‘Nothing is ever wasted.’ He told me to hold on to the unused material until it inevitably bubbled up somewhere else. He assured me that it would. He said he had this experience many times in writing his novels. He was right. I always find someplace else to cram my darlings.

Now, I have the great distress of learning that the people behind the forthcoming ‘Sex and the City’ movie have taken the same tack with a companion book. NDTV quotes Sarah Jessica Parker: ‘It’s a brand new book of the movie with every picture, every costume, location and the entire script so there are characters in there and scenes in there that didn’t make the movie.’

One person’s zen-like approach to writing is another person’s marketing scheme, I guess.

One other brief mention: Comedian Jeff Foxworthy has written a book, ‘How to Really Stink at Golf.’ Are you kidding? People don’t need help with this, Jeff.

Nick Owchar