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Thursday, December 4, 2014

something to write about; writing about something

I've been wondering lately - well, not only lately, but especially lately - if I am addicted to the treacherous. Hear me out. My life is easy. Embarrassingly easy. Not only in comparison to the rest of the world, but especially in comparison to the rest of the world. Basic needs are met with ease for me, the only squeezing comes when I buy myself too much stuff. I enjoy a plethora of little luxuries. My question of addiction comes from the awareness that, for the past few years at least, it has been much easier for me to write when things are difficult, and much more difficult to write when they are not. I have developed a habit of swinging my words, with some force at, or in direct reaction to, the changing winds. Though I don't depend on faulted cues, unfortunate coincidences, and angry people, I have certainly used the existence of all these things as a crutch for getting something on the page. I miss the days when the wind could come or go and I'd be writing anyway. I miss those days.

I have just begun part two (or rather, the second "part one") of a two-part book entitled HOW TO BE BOTH, by Ali Smith. It's a brilliant novel - and though I don't often swear (and especially not where my mom will read it), I feel I'm leaving something important out of my desciptor, by not using any swearwords. A bit of advice: don't read about it first. Just go buy it, open it, dive in. Reading anything on the amazon page, or elsewhere, especially comments and reviews, will ruin the experience of this piece (why I didn't include a link -- no snooping!). This book is one to be experienced without preperation.

Reading How to be Both, in its opening pages, annoyed me greatly. Here it is, you guys: a well-written stream-of -consciousness novel; a novel I have been told ad nauseum could not be written well. It's poetic and formula-breaking and really, really good.
I digress.

I am envious of those who create, whether by force or habit, and not by circumstance. It seems I am a circumstance writer, trying very hard to know how to write, no matter the circumstances.
 
 







1 comment:

anita said...

Circumstance writer? Or a keyboard heart processor? Both have the power to spew thought & beauty.