inspired by susmaryosep (3 kowtows to you).
blogging is writing is breathing. when some bloggers strain to "write
something, anything," i shouldn't presume they're doing so for the money. writers
continuously chase their muse. sometimes they succeed, sometimes not.
before blogging was invented, every aspiring writer's wastebasket was
her private domain. now blogs and email groups are public domain, where
one's trash is another's gem. you never can tell.
in
college, a favorite lit teachers taught us: if you aspire to succeed as
a writer, the most basic thing you do is to keep a daily journal. and
by god, make sure you do write a daily entry, even if it's just one
paragraph. force yourself to write that one paragraph -- cajole
yourself, bribe yourself, stroke yourself, quarrel with youself, do
anything, or don't do anything else, but write that daily paragraph. 9
times out of 10 what you write will feel yucky and icky, something that
an anorexic or a bulimic just threw up. but that 1/10th worth saving
means the other 9/10ths have played their role. flowers grow on dirt.
i
tried to follow my teach's advice, but kept skipping, sometimes going
through entire weeks with no new journal entries. one time i thought
the problem was with my journal's physical format, so i kept changing
notebooks. at other times i kept changing my writing pen, the angle of
my table light, and so on. until i saw a film about an aspiring young
black writer living in the 'hood (finding forrester, that's the title, thanks weirdworld i owe you!), his
rucksack full of journal notebooks.
then it hit me: i should commit
myself to write daily even if i got chained to a cot for 5 years in an
unlighted prison cell, with no access to pencil and paper.
The page you were looking for no longer exists
moonriver posted on Nov 05, 2006
| views: 513
Comments
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silverwhisper said on Nov 05, 2006....
moonriver, this is a very, very important lesson that i should take to heart better myself.
ed
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secretlife said on Nov 05, 2006....
i agree, there's alot to be said for just letting the words flow, even if 9 times out of 10 they'regarbage.i was sitting in the car yesterday afternoon waiting for my daughter and a group of her friends whowere inside of another girl's house decorating her room ...they have this band tradition here wherethe other kids in the section go to the houses of the seniors and decorate their bedrooms beforetheir last high school band competition, and yesterday was that day here.i was just the driver.anyway the point (sheesh, secret, so many words for such a small point?)-i had my journal in the car and i was trying to write, of all things, a poem!now i know for a fact this is something i'd never post here, but it was just kind of neat tolet it pour out of me onto the paper.i thought that writing here would be like a journaling thing.but once people are reading what you write, it's not so much that way... -
granny10 said on Nov 05, 2006....
To me writing is a job, a very important job. I've been writing all my life, just recently I decided to try to sell my work to magazines or publishers. I've had one magazine publish my work. I thought here I might get some practice, after all practice makes perfect.Granny10 -
granny10 said on Nov 05, 2006....
To me writing is a job, a very important job. I've been writing all my life, just recently I decided to try to sell my work to magazines or publishers. I've had one magazine publish my work. I thought here I might get some practice, after all practice makes perfect.Granny10 -
PAPERBACKWRITER said on Nov 05, 2006....
thank you for sharing this moonriver. this is one of the many reason i joined SC.
writing is as essential to me as breathing.
i had a writer´s block for a long period of time; no, it´s not the lack of ideas, it was the inability to let emotions flow....it was not simply inability to write as a professional writer but the inability to correspond to anybody in the written form or the inability to correspond with oneself, like in a journal---a dialogue with oneself
they say writers are readers
as a young child, i found such great joy in reading and since you imatitate what you like, i knew at a young age i would want to be a storyteller
but life came in between...i held my breath for a long time...painful
now, i´m trying to take in slow deep breaths here in SC
sending you love and peace, paper
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Zayda said on Nov 06, 2006....
When I was writing my dissertation, director said something similar. "Make sure you write every day and remember, with your first chapter, you will probably throw away at least the first 5-10 pages of it you write."
He underestimated that a bit. With my dissertation, I threw away the first two chapters (about 35 pages), after I wrote the last 4 and wrote two whole different new chapters.
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missfickle said on Nov 06, 2006....
Moonriver,How true this is, writing helps you to reflect on not only life, but your own 'self'. It is a way of evaluating what is important, what is not, and how your feeling on that day.Any good therapist will encourage his client to write down their thoughts or feelings on a daily bases.I'm so glad I found soulcast as it enables me to do what I love, and to interact with others in an anonymous setting which allows creativity to flow.Love and Peace xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -
moonriver said on Nov 06, 2006....
sw -- same here
sl -- as in sex, so too in blog: sharing it makes it more resonant, more precious
granny10 -- a publisher has been breathing down my neck to publish my pieces as a book; the pragmatist in me is ready to say yes, the artist in me is too selfish to let go of my squirrel's hoard
paper -- slow deep breathing does it for me too. may your river run calm and serene. tight hugs.
zayda -- on principle, i never throw away anything i wrote, even if i wince in embarrassment 15 years later when i read them again. often i go, "my god did i really write that? i was such a blabbering fool." not that i'm no longer a blabbering fool today. but in 1 out of 10, after reading an archived trash i did years ago, i'll go, "my god did i really write that? i wrote like a genius then. why couldn't i write as well now?"
missfickle -- it all began on a moment of introspection, when a recurring and branching dream i had affected me so deeply i simply had to write them down before they evaporated in the heat of daily life. my mother was a big influence -- she kept her own journals, made scrapbook albums. squirrel's hoard, lifetime treasure. a brooklyn restaurant napkin doodle, a half-faded geneva bus ticket, means so much to me.
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Zayda said on Nov 06, 2006....
Moonriver--I was using "threw away" figuratively. I still have thos2 two chapters on my computer and actually used much of what was in them in two separate published pieces.
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BlogObsessed said on Nov 07, 2006....
Yes, blogging puts a new spin on the old "write a page a day" philosophy. In my field (the performing arts) there was a book called something like "Living the Creative Life" - basically it's about nurturing our creative side - making sure we don't lose it personally as we create it professionally. Make sense? Anyway, it too recommends writing everyday - 3 pages. I've never been good at taking such advice. Always sounds good but....well I guess the book has the last laugh because now I write a blog! -
NightShadowGirl said on Jul 18, 2008....
My word, Moon, if nothing else made me feel guilty in my life.... lol.
Thanks. =)
Comment on "writing is breathing"
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