A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Six

One of the hardest moments for me is sitting down and knowing that I need to get to work, but not having a clear idea of what to do.  Many writers advocate doing free writing at such times, and I have attempted that many times, but it rarely works for me.  It may be that I tend to alter the process of that in some way so I am not focusing it on the fact that I am not sure what to say. It is probably natural that my free writing, when I stall, becomes a meditation on my inability to think of something else to say.  It seems that could easily be an entire genre of work, by writers who refuse to be blocked in some sense.

I did, actually, write something, though it is not necessarily anything that I want to keep working on.  It was, as with so many such pieces, a short excursion which wound up exploring it's own lack.  That does not make it invalid, and I think it to be a better example of the kind, at least in terms of my own output, but I don't feel it has very much to offer.

In truth, it has been a rather long day, and I am exhausted.  I spent the afternoon at that stone carving workshop, which was fascinating, but rather active.  Then, tonight I went and saw a reading of a new play, actually another piece by the same playwright who authored the last play I saw.  Theatre Lab decided to do some work on this piece, since the playwright was in town.  It felt like a piece that needs quite a bit of work, to be honest, which is expected since it is so early in development.  It felt, as well, like the audience was a bit misguided by certain aspects of the piece.  It did still do a very good job of keeping material light even while dealing with a heavy subject.

Overall, it was a rather long and productive day, even if I didn't do as much writing, and I feel that the work I did was somewhat helpful to getting me thinking about how to do the work I want to be doing.  Tomorrow, I really need to get that next agent query out.  It is important that I do it in a timely fashion, since I just met her last week.  I don't want to wait much longer, honestly.  In any case, I think I am going to call this a short one so I can get to bed and hopefully get a good start on things in the morning.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Writer's Notebook, Day Two-Hundred-And-Fifty

Each of the three pieces I wrote today was a bit of a struggle to get going, if I am honest.  That happens, as I have mentioned, and my answer is generally to just wait it out, and the results vary.  A lot of the time, if I am really stuck, I might try to force something out, often it winds up being a bit meta, with me writing about being stuck without much in terms of inspiration, and it feels a bit like I am working scales in a way.  All the aesthetic decisions are there, they just don't always have a lot of purpose behind them, and that is fine in that context.  Essentially, I am just forcing myself to do the work, and getting it done, and I am showing myself that I can and will do it even if inspiration never strikes.  This can often take pressure off, and that lack of pressure opens up creative thinking and inspiration. Now, that is a fine thing for me to do, and I am likely to use that approach again many times in the future, but today I felt that I want...
Read more

A Writer's Notebook, Day Three-Hundred-And-Sixty-Five

One of my teachers, the late poet Thomas Lux, was fond of pointing out that writing and publishing are two different things.  He stressed the need for a writer to focus on the work itself, not on the building of a career or the accumulation of publishing credits and other accolades.  Those things are not what a writer should be working towards, he would say, but instead the focus needs to be upon the craft.  He once expressed to me his belief that great work will always find a way into the world, even if it is after the artist has died.  Emily Dickinson is, of course, a prime example of this, though far from the only one.  That is a fine way to think about these things, but, and Lux also acknowledged this, to have a career as a writer requires doing all that other work. I tend to think that the writing itself is an important act on its own, having nothing to do with whether the work finds an audience immediately or not, and the publishing aspect as more of an ...
Read more

Le Guin, Steering The Craft, Chapter Five: Adjectives and Adverbs (Exercise Five, Chastity)

A note of apology for my lateness with this.  I had expected to have time earlier in the day, but it was not to be, alas.  Anyhow, I am still a bit nervous about this exercise, though it is clearly of significant import to Le Guin, as she points out that it is the only exercise that she has given to all of her workshops.  That, of course, does not alter my feelings about it, excepting that I am aware of it as something valuable and worth doing, so the fact that it is a bit daunting might well be seen, through that light, as a promise of reward, perhaps.  The more difficult the task, the more one has to gain, at least by some logic... Exercise Five: Chastity Mr. Torino was in charge.  He had his way.  It was the way.  Desktops are clean.  Nothing but work.  No pictures: not your kids; not your girl or wife; not (as Allen recounted) your car.   None of that.  No plants.  No cartoons.  That is for home, this is work....
Read more