CompuServe Messages

Don, I gave you specific examples of artistic works which were done in very brief periods of time, which allowed for very little "checking" or "correction." I can't believe you are asserting that a novel is written by repeatedly trying words in some methodical way until a reasonable sentence emerges. Look again at our ditchdigger. It is possible for ditchdigging to be safely delegated. You can write a plan for the ditch and distribute it to a team of journeyman diggers, even leave the site altogether, and come back and find the ditch more or less where you wanted it. If you have delegated the job to unreliable or poorly skilled people, you may not be happy with the results, but that's why I stipulate real journeyman diggers, not just any loonies pretending to be diggers. If novel writing were like ditchdigging, it would be delegated all the time. Some "novels" may be corporate works (Harold Robbins is rumored to be a collective), but they're not literature. Why didn't Truman Capote or Gay Talese or any of the other famous victims of writer's block simply subcontract the work, if such works are simple methodical processes? They aren't. The universe of possible china glazes is infinitesmal in comparison to the universe of possible novels. Edison determined that the invention process _could_ be delegated, and in Menlo Park he built the first modern research laboratory. Despite the millions of dollars of profits earned by a Steven King book, a proposal for a horror-thriller factory would never get a nickle of backing from the silliest venture capitalist.