On Writing

I've been thinking a lot about writing these past few days. More so than I have is some time. Writing is a strange thing for me at this junction in life and i can't explain why. I think it has to do with the amount of energy it takes to really compose something vibrant, dynamic, and full of life. Finding rhythm and voice and relearning old methods of showing readers what I'm saying.

As a writing student i was asked to read several books the delved into the craft of writing. Some include Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones, a book i did not find particularly helpful, I read The Art of Fiction by David Lodge, and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. After I left college i read Steven Kings memoir On Writing and most recently I read Hemingway's great collection of personal essays A Moveable Feast. There have been others too but they are lost in the college haze but on the topic of writing they all say the same thing: write.

No shit.

It is easier said than done i am afraid. I am testament to anyways. I have to give Steven King credit, he writes about writing Carrie in the laundry room of a trailer with a baby on his lap, hammering away at a type writer. (Of the famous, wealthy, prolific writers i admire Steven King a bit more than most. His story is powerful and inspiring and the demons he fought to get where he is should be lauded.) But i don't have those writing convictions, or if i do, i can't seem to get myself to stick to it. These books about writing all point to free writing, almost every writing teacher, class, instructor, or book says that free writing is the key to success in the writing world. If you are unfamiliar free writing is this process of sitting down and just writing. The idea is to maintain constant flow of words for a set period of time. It isn't suppose to make sense, it isn't supposed to be read by anyone else, it isn't suppose to be edited. When I've done it regularly I've had a free-write journal so my mess is contained in one fileable place. Within these free writing sessions there are supposed to be little gems to be pulled out and explored later. Really anything in my free writes is generally iron pyrite.

All the books say free writing is the first key to success. It doesn't work for me. When i sit down to write i will know after the first paragraph if it is something i will keep or not. I can't do free writing. I don't know if it is the time commitment to something that is ultimately, in my situation, useless or the battle against perfectionism is lost (i am not a real perfectionist but maybe pride is a better word) or what it is. Free writing does not work for me. It is kinda fun but i don't have time for it.

Two nuggets of great information i have gleaned from those books i mentioned are: "Shitty First Drafts" from Bird by Bird, read it if you haven't, but for those of you haven't or won't it is really all summed up in the chapter heading. Then their is Hemingway's practice of "always starting with the truest sentence i know" then if the days works is bad there is always truth to return to. The other authors I've mention, save Lodge who's book i find interesting but not really helpful, say the something similar, generally they say to write from experience. But i like the "truest sentence" idea better. In the context of Hemingway it sheds a new light on his novels and short storys and opens up a new way to read what he's written. In my context it gives me a place start from. A place i feel good about coming from. If everything i right, after my true sentence, is a glorified free write full of iron pyrite, there is a gem at the beginning.

That is comforting to me.