March 1, 2004
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A Writer Writes
Sometime back, I think in a book by Natalie Goldberg but don't sue me if I'm remembering wrongly, I read a passage about a student with an assignment to write about her hometown. She went out and tried to write and couldn't think of anything to say. So the instructor suggested that she narrow the topic to a single street in the town. She still couldn't think of anything. Then they narrowed it to a particular building. Still no words would flow. Finally, almost sarcastically, the instructor said, "Write about one brick in the face of that building ..." The student was able to write a 2,000 word essay on that one brick.
I've been stuck in my writing. To say that it's going sluggishly would be to exaggerate my successes. I have two cookbooks, one half formed poem, two short stories, and chapters of three different novels all sitting in the folder waiting for me to add those words, put flesh on their bones. For some reason, when I get done with my daily writing time, I have almost as much white space left on the page as I did the day before. The additional gray from erasure marks shouldn't count, but I'm beginning to be pleased that I've come up with enough bad sentences that the page is looking ragged.
I am keeping up with my writing on two fronts, the best efforts have gone into correspondence. I answer my mail, I answer my email. Second, I have produced blogs. I was surprised to realize that I actually posted 15 blogs that are at least semi-public during the month of February. There are another half dozen private ones, but believe me no one wants to count that writing.
It's possible that my focus is not narrow enough. I need to think about the brick and the building instead of the whole town. I certainly have enough life happening around me to provide inspiration. Okay, enough whining about my writer's block. How about I share with you the creative endeavors of my children? Yesterday, I was listening to them do imagination play. Michael, as usual, was a superhero and Tucker, as usual, was the designated Sidekick.
M: "Quickly, Sidekick, the bad guy is escaping to Ohio!"
T: "How do you know?"
M: "He dropped his map."
T: "I'm not picking it up, it's probably got bad guy germs ..."
(Later after they are presumably closing in on the bad guy in some unnamed City in Ohio)
M: "Isn't the City at sunset beautiful?"
T: "I think my weapon is beautiful."
M: "Come on Sidekick, look around at the lights, the colors, it's just almost romantic walking down this sidewalk."
T: "I think you need a weapon."
M: "I dont think you're listening, we are in a beautiful place!"
T: "Yeah, beautiful ... until we get our butts kicked."
Now why can't their Momi write like that?
Comments (14)
My lady, you just did ‘write like that’. Perhaps you have been searching for the muse in all the wrong places? Perhaps you have two… one 'M' muse and one 'T' muse? Often, our muse is right beside us all along.
Damn I adore those kids.
Write on… write on!!!
because...somewhere along the line, we've stifled the kid in us.
stinks, doesn't it?
and i'm glad the boy understands bad guy germs. you can never be too careful about those.
I can't WAIT til you guys get here!!!
I'm with dread on this one. Kids are amazing muses.
15 weblogs? How could anyone have more than just one? I never did understand the "multiple" aspect of this.
One much respected and very popular former Xangain (a good friend of yours, I think) once said that if the "writers" on Xanga were real writers, they would be writing instead of writing about writing on Xanga. I happened to disagree with her at the time, because I was cranking out a lot of words then, but there were a lot of people who thought she was right on the nose, that you couldn't do both, write and blog about writing. I suppose that could be our problem. *shrug*
M and T are funny.
Well, their Momi CAN write like that.
And if it's a stop-and-start process, hey girl. It's supposed to be. All those good words are just cookin' in there. Wait til that timer dings -- wooohooo, are us reader in store for cuisine then!! 
You are still passing through my particular Ohio city? I promise we have plenty of imaginary bad guys, good guys, AND sunsets!!
The Tucker tales are always my favorites, you know.
I love how each of your boys has such a unique personality. My two younger two sound like the teacher and the unwilling student, with occasional bouts of alpha male posturing rearing it's ugly head. Great conversation.
I think that sidekick is aspiring to fullfledged superherodom.
Can I have your kids?
Heh...
These are priceless moments indeed.
Oooo. Erasure marks when you're writing? Not that I'm a writer, but a writer once told me she never, never, never edited while she was writing. And she'd never write while she edited. She said when the two get mixed up, all work stops.
Mike
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