Open to observe

Tom Montag posted some interesting thoughts on writing and on observing life in his "Some Notes on This Habit of Writing":

The world is full of its million surprises.

Part of my success as a chronicler of my time and place is due to the fact that I'm open to what comes to me, to the extent that I'm able to resist having expectations. Insisting on what you expect to see will blind you to the gifts of serendipity. As soon as you start thinking the world is a certain way, it will be different than that.

That could be said about life in general.

For as long as I can remember I've had a tendency to be so stuck in my own head that I often fail to stop and observe, to just look and listen and see what happens. I'm not sure why this is, maybe it's a natural introversion or being born sensitive so that protecting myself from unexpected jolts from my environment became habitual. But over the years, I've gotten used to and even welcoming of those unexpected jolts. For instance, where thunderstorms used to send me hiding in the basement as a child, I find them very exciting to watch and experience (safely, of course) as an adult. Meeting new people as a child meant mutely clinging to my mother whereas today in my work as a freelance writer I meet new clients and do phone interviews with strangers all the time without a second thought.

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Refrigerator magnet poetry

Found at under the fire star... I did this using the kids' poetry page (the page Nancy linked to).

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Feeding the flames

I found this wonderful piece by Phillip Pullman via Scott Rosenberg’s Salon blog. Pullman talks about how you need both imagination and reason in writing. But he cannot will himself to write something his imagination isn’t engaged in:

When I try, it's like trying to light a fire with damp wood. Nothing catches. Making the will do the work of the imagination is a wearisome and melancholy task, and it would drive you mad with despair in no time if you let it. And there's no need to, after all; when there is dry tinder nearby, and when the spark of your imagination leaps toward it like a lover, you can have a fine blaze roaring in a moment, if a blaze is what you want…

 

If you want to write anything that works, you have to go with the grain of your talent, not against it. If your imagination is inert and sullen in the face of business or politics or adultery among the artists or the perils threatening the environment, but takes fire at the thought of ghosts and vampires and witches and demons, then feed the flames, feed the flames.

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Fear of seashells

I just found a blog with “daily writing exercises to free the imagination.” It’s written by a writer/writing prof. The start of today’s post:

Last night, I had the folks in my writing class reveal their most irrational fears. Here's the best one I heard: fear of having seashells in the house.

Her assignment: Write about your own irrational fears.

[This was part of a slightly longer post earlier today in my main blog.]

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Camille Paglia throws down a challenge to bloggers
Paglia has lots to say (I know, shocking, isn't it?) in this interview at salon.com (unfortunately, it's by subscription - it's fun, though, if you can read it). At the end of the 6-page article featuring her usual no holds barred views on Iraq, the Democratic contenders, Rush Limbaugh, Madonna, etc., etc., she has this to say about blogging:

Blog reading for me is like going down to the cellar amid shelves and shelves of musty books that you're condemned to turn the pages of. Bad prose, endless reams of bad prose! There's a lack of discipline, a feeling that anything that crosses one's mind is important or interesting to others...

If bloggers want to break out of their ghetto, they've got to acquire a sense of drama and theater as well as a flair for language. Why else should anyone read them? And the Web in my view is a visual medium -- I don't log on to be trapped on a muddy page crammed with indigestible prose...

As a writer, I'm inspired not just by other writing but by music and art and lines from movies. I think that's what's missing from a lot of blogs. Most bloggers aren't culture critics but political or media junkies preoccupied with pedestrian minutiae and a sophomoric "gotcha" mentality. I find it depressing and claustrophobic. The Web is a wide open space -- voices on it should have energy and vision.

Well okay then.

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My first blogroll link!
Rebecca Blood mentioned The Weblog Handbook the first time she found that another blogger was linking to her blog and how that spurred her to write more, knowing someone was reading. I just found my first referral at pregnancy by proxy. It's pretty cool to see 3rd House Party recommended. I suspect she found me in the Radio users group, since she mentions that they've helped her with her site issues. (By the way, people there have been incredibly helpful to me also.)

She also linked to a cool blog, The Alien in my Buddha, which is written by a woman who's expecting in her 40's. I have no kids, nor do I plan to, but I found this blog interesting because she writes of dealing with her aging parents (which I'm dealing with) and she's also in the Boston area and has been posting about the Red Sox among other things. The "blogosphere" is an interesting community.

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A Year in Cornwall
The personal weblog, A Year in Cornwall, chronicles a family's move from Marin County in California to the sleepy North Coast of Cornwall. It has wonderful writing that often takes the small bits of everyday life and connects it to the universal. Today's post:

Sebastian crawled forward today. For days he's only been able to crawl backwards, so it was a big relief for the little guy to find his forward gear. We of course cheered him on as he lurched unsteadily forward, and his little face beamed. I'm not sure why we're so pleased about these small steps. It only means he'll be up and walking soon, and so from now on nothing below waist level is safe. I suppose it's all part of life's great quest forward, making progress despite the discomfort, trying out new territory despite the risks of failure.

The parallel with our current adventure was not lost on me. Sometimes it feels like we too are crawling backwards, hoping that at some point we'll start to crawl forward...

Funny that I enjoy visiting this site even though my life couldn't be more different. That's what good writing does. I recommend it. It has nice photographs also.

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