Courage is a good word, one we need to get out and dust off now and again to remind us that every word you write down is your assertion and insertion into a world of both thought and image that hasn’t existed until you wrote down that word. Yet simply writing down words isn’t in and of itself a courageous act; it only becomes so when the words and the order in which you’ve placed them aren’t borrowed from the vast steaming piles of clichés we always have ready at hand. – Brett Lott, Letters and Life
Archives for September 2015
Silence the Editors
Every time I start a new piece of writing, be it a poem, an essay, et cetera, I confront my editors. I have my internal editor, the one that wants to nitpick every sentence as it appears on the page. The other editors are external. They’re things like audience and approval ratings. All are hazardous when in the act of writing. They have to be silenced.
Where’s Your Process?
People have described me as eclectic. I assume it’s true based on the variety of activities I pursue and my ability to become interested in almost any subject. If I can find an entry point into it, it becomes mine. I explore it, dig around for a while, get good and messy. I may end up not liking the subject or the activity—cough, cough, ceramics—but I’ve engaged it fully. I made a plan, i.e., a process. I studied the thing, did the thing, laid claim to it for a time. I can continue with it, or I can move onto a new activity or subject that doesn’t leave me in fits of frustration.
Write Right Goes 20,000 Leagues under the Sea
I Will Declare My Weaknesses
Several months ago, I started a series of blog posts entitled “From There to Here.” (The series has since ceased. I’ve moved onto other topics.) The responses to it were interesting. Some people applauded it and thanked me for the reminder that their own all too circuitous paths had a purpose to them. Others saw it and were concerned. They thought that mentioning missteps, failures, and challenges could make people leery about working with me. They suggested I not share the struggles inherent in being a writer and artist.