Will there ever come a time when I no longer loath writing?
Consider this note written to my children on Sunday, November 30, 2008 (highlight added).
The big news this week: I finished [my] second “reformat the Book of Mormon” project.
This time, it reads in more of a paragraph form. I wouldn’t have expected to have learned as much out of this project as I have. Since no new information is provided, what is there that can’t be learned from the existing material? After all, it is simply about style, not substance. Yes, all of that is true. But, in having to think about how paragraphs should be organized (which verses go into which paragraphs), one unavoidably thinks about the content of each verse, and how it relates to both the verses that directly adjoin it and those verses that are proximal. Doing so tends to expose the threads that link the ideas, the reasoning, the development in support of the principles, the context of the ideas, and even the thinking of the authors. I wonder, as I read it in this form, if those things will continue to be brought to the forefront, or if only in the exercise are these things exposed.
Now, granted, that isn’t R E A L writing.
Funny thing though, in 2009 Royal Skousen completed and published The Book of Mormon : the earliest text, my now favorite version. Skousen began by throwing out considerably more falderal (e.g., punctuation; word alterations), which resulted in a far superior work, Additionally, his structure has a certain OT Hebrew feel and beauty that is lost in both the original / current printed versions, and in the paragraph form. Thanks Royal.
Bottom line? Guess which version seems sophomoric? It is so motivating. NOT.