A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Hundred-And-Seventy-Seven
Thankfully, my computer is back up and running, and I think it is doing okay. It is always hard to tell, honestly, but I had some help checking it out and I trust that it is in good shape at the moment. Anyhow, I am back online and thus back in action on here.
I did write a poem last night, though it was not much of one. Tonight, I think I actually spun something from a fairly small fragment that was honestly connected with my thoughts on not having any ideas of what to present initially. It worked out into something that I feel has some oomph to it, and I am rather hopeful that it might be a step towards a more consistent methodology or practice. Certainly, I am writing daily, but that is only a small part of the kind of consistency I am speaking of.
The consistency I am dealing with is more connected to the inspiration than the writing itself. It needs to be both, and they need to work in tandem. Inspiration, of course, is not the right term, in some sense, as inspiration does imply the concept of being struck out of the blue by an idea and an urgency to put it on paper. Rather, I am speaking of always having the ability to conceive of an idea that would be appropriate. It is something that was once quite true for me, and I can easily imagine myself returning to that, even though I don't recall the precise parameters of what made that function.
In part, it is having the part of the brain that connects ideas working all the time, and having it tuned to the appropriate ideas. For example, I have a concept for a short story (I think) that would be a retelling of Cinderella, but rather different than anything I have encountered before, and taking a very specific kind of approach to the whole piece. It is something that I know wouldn't work as a poem, even though one can tell tales of all sorts in poetry. It has a certain focus to it which means it would be better served in another medium. At present, I am debating whether it would actually be better as a play than a story, really. I need to get the plot and characters really sorted, though, before I can get more specific on that, though.
In other areas, I have the letter for the next agent prepped, and plan to send it out in the morning. I was ready with it yesterday, but didn't get to do it today, and would rather send during business hours than at this point in the night. I just think it looks a bit more professional, plus, it is more likely that a business person will see it pop up and randomly decide, for whatever reason, or out of some habit, to open it. Putting aside what might well be my own neurosis for the moment, I am planning to send that out tomorrow.
I keep having these random things that are making me very on edge about the agent's responding. A few days ago, my email automatically moved my sent email to the first agent into my inbox, saying I had no reply and did I want to send a follow-up. This, of course, would be a terrible thing to do, in all honesty, and I know that it is purely an automated response, but what was really irritating was that I just saw this email pop into my inbox and thought it was a response, which coming so soon seemed rather auspicious. Anyhow, subsequent to that, I received an email that was not in any way related to my book from a person at an unrelated organization with the subject "WR letter". In this context, WR didn't have any connection to the title, and is purely a coincidence, but I didn't recognize the senders name immediately, and I was taken aback once more until I placed it. It just feels like the kind of weird jokes the universe seems to play on me, and I am trying to take it as a playful sign of positive results to come.
I did write a poem last night, though it was not much of one. Tonight, I think I actually spun something from a fairly small fragment that was honestly connected with my thoughts on not having any ideas of what to present initially. It worked out into something that I feel has some oomph to it, and I am rather hopeful that it might be a step towards a more consistent methodology or practice. Certainly, I am writing daily, but that is only a small part of the kind of consistency I am speaking of.
The consistency I am dealing with is more connected to the inspiration than the writing itself. It needs to be both, and they need to work in tandem. Inspiration, of course, is not the right term, in some sense, as inspiration does imply the concept of being struck out of the blue by an idea and an urgency to put it on paper. Rather, I am speaking of always having the ability to conceive of an idea that would be appropriate. It is something that was once quite true for me, and I can easily imagine myself returning to that, even though I don't recall the precise parameters of what made that function.
In part, it is having the part of the brain that connects ideas working all the time, and having it tuned to the appropriate ideas. For example, I have a concept for a short story (I think) that would be a retelling of Cinderella, but rather different than anything I have encountered before, and taking a very specific kind of approach to the whole piece. It is something that I know wouldn't work as a poem, even though one can tell tales of all sorts in poetry. It has a certain focus to it which means it would be better served in another medium. At present, I am debating whether it would actually be better as a play than a story, really. I need to get the plot and characters really sorted, though, before I can get more specific on that, though.
In other areas, I have the letter for the next agent prepped, and plan to send it out in the morning. I was ready with it yesterday, but didn't get to do it today, and would rather send during business hours than at this point in the night. I just think it looks a bit more professional, plus, it is more likely that a business person will see it pop up and randomly decide, for whatever reason, or out of some habit, to open it. Putting aside what might well be my own neurosis for the moment, I am planning to send that out tomorrow.
I keep having these random things that are making me very on edge about the agent's responding. A few days ago, my email automatically moved my sent email to the first agent into my inbox, saying I had no reply and did I want to send a follow-up. This, of course, would be a terrible thing to do, in all honesty, and I know that it is purely an automated response, but what was really irritating was that I just saw this email pop into my inbox and thought it was a response, which coming so soon seemed rather auspicious. Anyhow, subsequent to that, I received an email that was not in any way related to my book from a person at an unrelated organization with the subject "WR letter". In this context, WR didn't have any connection to the title, and is purely a coincidence, but I didn't recognize the senders name immediately, and I was taken aback once more until I placed it. It just feels like the kind of weird jokes the universe seems to play on me, and I am trying to take it as a playful sign of positive results to come.
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