May I have a word?
10:41 PM Edit This 2 Comments »
Writing is what I ought to do. I know this, and it’s just something I should be doing. My struggle with writing comes from a common sense of the bucket hitting the bottom of the well and coming up dry, a lack of fortitude to finish a thought that I’ve started, a fear of the ever critical reader (yes, that’s you… no, I don’t know if you’re really being critical or generous, and I may never know!—that’s the problem). I scrounge through the desert of my mundane experience for pieces that give me enough flavor to make broth with, hoping my imagination and practice will add some substance to it. I grow bored with the project, assuming we will all find something else to consume if we wander just a little further. Finally, if a piece makes its way through the machine and on to the plate, I am afraid to let it out of the kitchen, for fear that it will seem trivial or overstated or commonplace, or even for fear that no one will notice that it is there at all.
Sometimes I’ll be walking down the street, or maybe chewing breakfast cereal, or observing some natural phenomenon or another; and the most interesting subject will come to mind. And I will spend the most fascinated 3 seconds of my life exploring the idea and thinking about all that I should someday write about it. And in about that long the idea is quite gone, replaced in my conscious space by some shiny object or a butterfly or a very cool sneaker.
So then, let’s write these down. Things that I may someday, and now we all know ought to, write about. You should participate here, because the fact is you should all be reading these someday. and when I say should I mean ought to, because that’s the kind of language we use around here.
Things I can remember so far…
A piece of cross-gender relationships that I started several months ago and became disinterested with for lack of information (that supported my desired conclusion).
A piece on the difference of experience between time spent with many people and time spent with few.
An exploration of friendships of different types and values and natures that I have encountered.
An exploration of fruit juicing of different types and values and natures that I have encountered.
A journaly type expedition through my final stand at the home of my parents for the next two and a half months.
Okay, your turn. Otherwise I will just start ripping ideas of all of your blogs. and you don’t want that to happen. Like, it ought not.
C
Sometimes I’ll be walking down the street, or maybe chewing breakfast cereal, or observing some natural phenomenon or another; and the most interesting subject will come to mind. And I will spend the most fascinated 3 seconds of my life exploring the idea and thinking about all that I should someday write about it. And in about that long the idea is quite gone, replaced in my conscious space by some shiny object or a butterfly or a very cool sneaker.
So then, let’s write these down. Things that I may someday, and now we all know ought to, write about. You should participate here, because the fact is you should all be reading these someday. and when I say should I mean ought to, because that’s the kind of language we use around here.
Things I can remember so far…
A piece of cross-gender relationships that I started several months ago and became disinterested with for lack of information (that supported my desired conclusion).
A piece on the difference of experience between time spent with many people and time spent with few.
An exploration of friendships of different types and values and natures that I have encountered.
An exploration of fruit juicing of different types and values and natures that I have encountered.
A journaly type expedition through my final stand at the home of my parents for the next two and a half months.
Okay, your turn. Otherwise I will just start ripping ideas of all of your blogs. and you don’t want that to happen. Like, it ought not.
C
2 comments:
Hey C-Pat,
I don't have the exact quotes with me, but I've come across two in my experience which both make the point that the writer must get to the point where he or she cannot not write. So I'm glad that you've gotten here.
I sympathize with the dry bucket idea, although my ideas (since they're musical) tend to be more abstract.
I suggest carrying around a notebook to record your 3-second thoughs. Moleskines work beautifully for such purposes. And they're sold now by Barnes & Noble.
AJ
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Courtney, I look forward to reading what you write even if you feel like you have nothing to say. Your words are always beautiful.
I feel like I am the same way I have a bunch of fragmented yet profound thoughts for like 3 seconds at a time and then they are gone.
I agree with AJ you should carry a small notepad with you to write stuff down so you can share it with the world.
But also don't beat yourself up if you don't come up with anything super profound all the time.
-Mike
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