It had happened at other points along the bluff. But somehow I got to like it. I'd climb halfway down in the morning and find a scooped out place in the soft sandstone where I'd sit, drink my coffee, and watch the waves, feel them, the heartbeat of the world. I loved that. It felt as though I were hanging out over the wild edge of myself.
Writing is a process of discovery.
When you write a story or a poem, you're trying hard to reveal a hidden part of yourself, trying to make your unknown known, as Georgia O'Keefe once said. In other words, you're exploring the lost coast of yourself. That's what this text is about. In The Art of Fiction, John Gardner pointed out eloquently that there is no recipe for real fiction, no formula for poetry. Still, there are methods that sometimes work better than others.