A Writer's Notebook, Day Two-Hundred-And-Seventy-Five

It is late, but it was a rather good day in terms of productivity.  I have four new poems, one from this morning, one from the early evening, and two that I just wrote.  I feel that two are interesting.  One of those two I am actually quite happy with at the moment.  It seems to fit into another of the general categories I've been playing with, connecting to a few different pieces that I can think of.  It focuses on the idea of taking something fairly abstract and building a sort of extended metaphor out of it, in this case the concept of doubt.  The thing is to take a concept that is fairly abstract and treat it as concrete.

(That actually is a really good idea for an exercise form my upcoming workshop, and fits quite well into the general theme I am working with, but I will think about that at another time.)

So, I feel that I got a fair amount of good work done today, though it took a long time to get the work really going.  I had a busy evening, with company and going out and such, so I didn't have a chance to work until late, really.  It was in anticipation of that reality that led to me writing this afternoon, though I would like to cultivate that practice.  In all, I feel quite happy about the way my work has been going the last few days, and I am recognizing that it has a certain cycle that I need to allow to happen.  On those days when I don't feel as productive, I still feel bad about my work, but I also see that it is necessary in some ways to focus my thinking and allow for other, better poems to come into being.

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

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

A Writer's Notebook, Two-Thousand-And-Fifty-Nine

I have been thinking about how I can discuss certain aspects of my poetry and the choices I make as a writer.  In particular, I tend to write without as much reliance on sensory details and descriptions, instead choosing more abstract depictions.  This is something that I know many writers would call an odd choice, as specificity seems inherently to demand the application of detail, but I tend to be a bit hesitant about relying on depictions that utilize the senses, as I find that approach somewhat problematic.  For one thing, sensory description is always going to be less than universal, and not only because of the reality that there are individuals who lack one or more sense.  In many ways, for me, the deeper problem is one related to language itself.  Our use of language creates our experiences in a very real way, though I can't necessarily offer a full explanation of what I mean by that right here, but using a word for an object bestows qualities on it....
Read more