Pam Bustin
creator, editor, story tender
Shake and Bake 4: The “Moving On” Edition
In homage to Havi’s Friday Chickens over on the The Fluent Self — This is the place I review my week – in an attempt to track some things – like progress on my novel and… living intentionally.
Call it an experiment in paying attention.
THIS WEEK’S EXPERIMENT:
Getting up at 7am and eating Breakfast.
THE RESULT:
Up Mon-Fri at 7am and …. ate SOMETHING each morning but not truly fabulous breakfasts.
The Quick Chicken:
Work on NIP: A bit of a discombobulating week – fitting in shiny bits from previous weeks’ work and exploring the CORE. Seeking the clear clean line through amidst chaotic ramblings and demands from various characters.
Walks – hells ya – every day!
Guitar – missed two days – boo hiss! But picked up again and blustered on. Callouses continue to grow.
Yoga/Meditation – Only once, on the weekend. Sad lonely yoga mat.
And…the rest of the week…
THE GNARBLY BITS:
- A heart sadness:
- A dear friend crossed-over/passed on/left us.
- I hurt for her son and daughter and I grieve her loss.
- I am thankful she had a gentle transition with her loved ones at her side.
- A dear friend crossed-over/passed on/left us.
- Rough going some days in the NIP.
- Hit a different rhythm this week, doing a different thing, a not as much fun thing as last week.
- I need to allow myself to enjoy, embrace and celebrate all the different pieces and ways of working that are necessary to this creation.
- Saying “I need to”WAY too much – as a judging thing.
- Need to need to need to…should should should…these words will bury me.
- At least I notice them now. That’s gotta be good, right?
THE TASTY BITS:
- A gentle passing:
- I’m glad M has found rest, or moved forward to become a galactic ambassador – she would make a lovely ambassador, having been a healer in this realm.
- I’m glad R could be home, with his mother this week. A miracle of timing that we are all so grateful for.
- I’m honoured that I was invited into the room to say my farewell. I hold her memory in my heart and I wave to her departing essence from the shore.
- Lending a hand:
- Pleased to be able to help some pals shift their stuff into a new home.
- Twas a joy to spend some time helping out, working some muscles, feeling useful and just hanging out with them and their fabulous furry friends.
- Celebrating the Work Rhythm!
- I did a super happy dance in celebration of the new rhythm of the 2 hours pure writing time I’ve followed through on for the past few weeks. And also give a woot woot for all the word done OUTSIDE the writing time – the researching, thoughtful walking and dreaming.
- It feels so good, and though I had a rough time on Thurs and Fri — feeling overwhelmed by how much I NEED (yeah yeah, there it is again) to work on and feeling like I will never get it all in, all right, all….fabulous… I know that this is what is needed…steady, forward movement.
- Word by word I build it!
NEXT WEEK’S EXPERIMENT:
It’s time, Pam. Time to make the move to… escape the MACHINE. In an attempt to free myself from my current online obsession/addiction…this weeks experiment will be….
To TURN OFF the TYPER MACHINE by 7pm each day
– except Monday when I will be watching episode 4 of The Compassionate Brain from 8-9pm.
AND…. to have one day entirely FREE of said machine.
Fingers crossed, my people.
This could be a rough one!
And… How was your Week?
Feel free to drop a Saturday SHAKE & BAKE of your own
– no matter what day it is.
Thanks for stopping by.
go easy-p
Plodding vs Soaring…
I’ve been working well this week, on the NIP.
Some days I work on the Typer and some days I stay in my Scribble Book, which, these days, is big black sketch book partially used (by someone else). I love using these books. I flip them over, start at the back and am always surprised and pleased when I come upon the drawings/paintings/notes of the former user.
Whether I work on the Typer or in my Scribble-book depends on … what is coming through. Some days are listening/following days, these are best spent in the Scrib-book. The Typer days are more about weaving the story together with the bits I find on the listening days.
Different ways of working – handwritten vs typed.
Big sprawling mess in the Scrib — often with doodles vs organized, searchable text I can move around, rework, fit in.
Different rhythms.
Different focus.
I feel more … free… in the Scrib to mix in … notes to myself along with the words of the characters. I often find something interesting when I go back through to mark up the bits that will be reviewed and revised for entrance into the manuscript.
Like this…
I hold back. Hold it back and can’t get it out sometimes. And here on this page (which is the back page of someone’s [Alex’s] painting of some flowers), on this page I imagine how good it would feel to push paints around. I could do that. I could try. It seems, always that it might be a good way to … FEEL something through. But then I imagine such lovely swirls of colour and the actual THING done is usually so… clumsy…and so… I stop. Hmm.. Perhaps the back of the page looks better than the front. Does that mean you failed or that the … reflection, the leak through is a truer expression of what you were aiming for?
Like on the guitar… I am just getting the hang of strumming and I can’t for the life of me change the emPHAsis. I can’t get the boom-chicka-boom feeling right. Hmm… writing that, I see why – the booms [1 & 3] seem louder – even here – than the chickas but I think what Justin (my virtual guitar teacher) is saying is that the 2s and 4s should be louder. Sure doesn’t sound like a train when I play it. HA.
Connection? I am still clumsy… but it is entirely obvious to me that I need to build up to it. Build callouses on my fingers. Get the bend right to position the tips of my fingers on the strings. Build muscle in my chording hand just to PRESS right. Need to loosen my strumming wrist and learn the flick. Need to develop an ear and rhythm… so much. And so… It is no different with the handling of paint or words. True?
And sometimes, the bleed-through looks better than the original. I think that holds true with writing too – at least for me. If I go straight at something, I haven’t the skill to render it life-like. But if I try — and I must try — I must go straight at the thing… and when I do this, there are… hints, impressions left behind that I can make use of. It is often the sly word slipped in by my unconscious/subconscious that leads me on a whole new riff and THAT is where the juice is, that is where the TRUTH of it is. Truth ain’t “the facts”. But oh how it rings when you find it.
I am a plodder – on many fronts.
I return, day after day to the page. I put in my time.
I am also a soarer – once in a while. I swoop down and snatch up a shiny bit dropped, unawares, by my plodding self. I swoop, snatch and soar away with it.
Sometimes I take it to a safe place and turn it over and over in my hands to admire it’s beauty, then I fit it into the other shiny bits of the novel. It’s like… decorating the house, building the cathedral of the novel.
Sometimes I soar up as high as I can and DROP the shiny thing – smashing the piece open to reveal the true riches.
The day I found this in the Scrib, I turned the page in my last minute of writing and there was a pencil sketch with the word RISK worked into it.
I like that.
This whole thing is a risk, of course. The writing. Life.
I’m glad I stayed in the Scrib that day. It was good. I found THIS and I also had pages of fresh material to weave into the manuscript.
Little plodding… little soaring… and a dash of trust that it will all come together in the end.
How about you? Are you plodding or soaring right now?
Thanks for stopping by.
go easy -p
Shake and Bake 3: The “joy JOY joy” Edition
In homage to Havi’s Friday Chickens over on the The Fluent Self — This is the place I review my week – in an attempt to track some things – like progress on my novel and… living intentionally.
Call it an experiment in paying attention.
THIS WEEK’S EXPERIMENT: Getting OUT of bed at 7AM each morning.
THE RESULT: Tu-Naaa! I did it.
It was tempting some days to cuddle back into the warmth but I counted down the days and DID IT!!! And oh I’m so happy I did. It opened up so many things.
THE GNARBLY BITS:
- Insomnia! Oh to sleeeeeep for six hours at a stretch…. please please.
- Being a big ole judgey-pants of my self.
- starting to REALLY notice this. Hoping that noticing leads to … lightening up/shifting this.
- Being content to keep it simple and not pile on more more more…
- this may simply be an off-shoot of the aforementioned Mz Judgey-Pants sticking her snoot in and trying to sabotage …. again and still…Being content to keep it simple and not pile on more more more…
THE TASTY BITS:
- the work the work the work!
- the nights I DID find sleep were so very sweet. Thank you.
- bits of work around the shack to make it cozier and cozier.
- shiny bits of wisdom landing in my lap
- from online lectures: stop and notice the judging and lay a hand on yourself (on cheek, heart, for me it is tucking in my thumbs) and let yourself know that you are OK – for me this week the sentiment has been, “It’s OK, raggedy-girl. You are fine. Be gentle” – the raggedy is not a judgement, it makes me smile. (see Dr. WHO aka “raggedy man”)
- from magical books arriving in my hands at just the right moment: the concept of switching my constant “I should… I need to…” over to “Wouldn’t it be lovely if…” I do believe this could save my life.
- a visit from a lovely woman I am just getting to know: the vision of a lonely childhood and the urge to go back in time and visit that child and take a walk with her.
- I’ve got the Joy joy JOY joy down in my heart…down in my heart…
- the joy of actually DOING what I set out to do for the week (work wise)
- the joy of eating breakfast and bonus of NOTICING what I am eating through out the day
- the joy of guitar callouses and hand strength returning from… daily practice
- the joy of walking
- And… all this stemming from….
- a huge happy dance about the getting up each day at 7am! Cheeeeers for me!
NEXT WEEK’S EXPERIMENT:
I am tempted to make this week’s experiment about turning off THE MACHINE earlier each night… but I also feel like that just might be me PILING MORE AND MORE STUFF ON.
As so much is falling into place by focussing on rising earlier and eating breakfast… I say… let’s have another week of the same!
And… I may BEGIN to turn my attention…. GENTLY… to getting off the Typer and into bed earlier too but… no presha!
And… How was your Week?
Thanks for stopping by.
go easy-p
Belonging…
I’ve been playing about with the layout of the site. Adding this and that… trying things out.
I’ve begun working on some Resources for Writers.
I plan to use the section to guide people to … STUFF that I find interesting and/or integral to life as a writer.
You can check it all out ABOVE… but I thought it deserved a post of it’s own as well.
First of all… the books. I spent a few hours creating a new shelf on my Goodreads page. It’s called Reading for Writers and it holds books I have read as well as books that other writers have recommended to me that I haven’t read yet. I also spent some time putting together the beginning of my own PERSONAL favourites.
I also want to let you know about the fabulous writers’ organizations I belong to. The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC), the The Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC), Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild (SWG) and the place that served as my first HOME as a writer – Saskatchewan Playwrights’ Centre (SPC).
Why do I belong to these organizations?
There are many many reasons, but topmost, for me, are … COMMUNITY and SOLIDARITY. I add my voice (and my membership fees) to the voices of other writers as we speak out on various causes like Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Read, Copyright, Health Care for Artists…etcetera. Together we can (and ARE) speaking up when the government threatens our libraries, our archives and stages overt or covert attacks on Arts and Culture in Canada. These organizations are full of smart, articulate people: solid staff and fellow writers who volunteer copious amount of their time to work on behalf of all of us. I salute them and I support them.
These organizations also offer a variety of programs and services that support me, personally, as a writer: workshops on Craft and Professional Development, financial support for readings, manuscript evaluations, workshops of my plays with professional actors/directors/dramaturgs… the list goes on an on.
On the Writers’ Retreats front – I’m an alumni of the Sage Hill Writing Experience – as both a a participant and an instructor of the Teen Writing Experience.
As for Arts Funding in Canada – I have been blessed with support from The Canada Council (CC) and the Saskatchewan Arts Board (SAB). Through these funding bodies, my peers have awarded me with the thing I need the most – TiME to work. I have also worked with publishers, theatre companies and non-profit organizations that receive support from these bodies. I can not sing their praises loud enough and I once again lend my voice, and time, to their fierce defence.
And so we come to the mainstays in my personal support system… the friends/mentors/fellow artists I have met along the way.
The folks I gather with online or in person to shoot the sh*t with.
I’ve found a lively, supportive bunch over on the ABEbooks forums and am building this online tribe as I cruise new blogs and sites every day.
I’m getting to know the writers of the near north of Ontario now that we’ve relocated to these parts. Happy to be part of the newly formed NOLL (Northeastern Ontario Literary Lights).
But my bedrock are my REAL LIFE friends and cohorts who share their wisdom with me and the agonies and ecstasies of this crazy life.
Like Kurt Vonnegut’s son Mark said, “We’re here to get each other through this thing, whatever it is.”
Feel free to drop a line about what (or who) helps you “get through” and keeps you laying those words on the page.
Thanks for stopping by.
go easy -p
Shake and Bake 2: The “Go. Sit. Now.” Edition
The place I review my week – in an attempt to track some things – like progress on my novel and… living intentionally.
Call it an experiment in paying attention.
THIS WEEK’S EXPERIMENT: Eating Breakfast
THE RESULT: TASTY
![Breakfast of Champions[Chaparral][Day19]*](https://i0.wp.com/farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/2203224077_2b1307f2b9_m.jpg "Breakfast of Champions[Chaparral][Day19]*")
- Definitely had more energy – which is a good good thing.
THE GNARBLY BITS:
- Time time time… is there NEVER enough time?
- Still missing some HOURS in my planned 2 hours per day FOCUSSED on the NIP.
- When I miss doing it I feel horrid and full of dread – even if I have spent hours writing something ELSE (like a blog post), or I’m busy with some other aspect of WORK. Then the next day I want to BiNGE again and do four, six, EIGHT hours instead to “make up for it” but I am not going to do that anymore. I want to get into this groove and…. it shouldn’t be so hard, right?
- Once I SIT TO IT, I am fine. But I have to consciously say – “go. sit. now.”
THE TASTY BITS:
- Scribbling in my book daily – oh I love that morning scribble time.
- Breakfasts
- Walks up the lane and into the bush – I love the place I’m living right now.
- Free Online “lectures or conversations” – how fun to sit in my jimjams with tea and a cookie and listen to people talk about things I’m interested in.
- The days when I DID manage 2 hours focussed writing on the NIP were dread free. So good. I do think this sort of container will work for me. It’s like the … whaddaya callit – the analytical frame…
- In an essay called “The Analytic Frame, Abstinence, and Acting Out,” Robert M. Young, a psychotherapist, says, that the reason we need a set and specific time and space to explore things with a therapist goes very deep. “The analytic frame,” he writes, “is the place where the madness is held so that the therapist and patient can have a space to think and feel about matters felt with a degree of intensity which is painful but still bearable.” Now, I’m not saying the writing is therapy – but I do think a frame is a good idea for me right now. Note – this quote if from that article by Aimee Bender called “Why the Best Way to Get Creative Is to Make Some Rules.” I talked about it here.
NEXT WEEK’S EXPERIMENT: More breakfasts. I need another week working on this one. And I will add in… rising earlier… Let’s experiment with rising each day at 7am.
And How was your Week?
Thanks for stopping by.
go easy-p
Seek freedom….
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
– Frank Herbert
Distractions…and the power of a good story
There’s a lot of things that distract us and pull us away from our work — whatever that work may be.
There’s the simple life things that aren’t really distractions… the things that truly need taking care of: doing the dishes, eating properly, moving the body, chasing dust bunnies, chopping wood, caring for our families and ourselves,.
There are emergencies that pull our pull our focus and demand our attention.
There are sadnesses.
There is loss.
There are also our favourite guilty distractions. Mine is television. Since the CBC killed their analog signal, we only have one channel on our TV – the wonderful world of CTV.
Home of News for the North and my favourite weather woman, Jill Colton. I enjoy CTV and I also enjoy the wide world of TV on my computer. Ahh… the ole typer machine… filled with hours and hours of legal entertainment… Dr Who and Alphas over on SPACE, Lost Girl, Copper and Common Law over on Showcase, all manner of fun at Bravo, A&E, Global, and… oh yeah… a weekly dose of Corry Street and some good documentaries over on CBC. Not to mention that if I REALLY want to watch a lovely film I can dig through the archives over at the NFB.
It is all there… at my fingertips… including entire seasons of some shows I missed the first time ‘round like Combat Hospital, The Cult and that special favourite of mine Sanctuary (also the working title of my NIP).
It’s all there and I can slip down that bunny hole for hours at a time.
And I do.
And then… I crawl into bed full of self-loathing.
Why?
Because I use television like a drug.
When I do this, I do not choose … GREAT television. I do think there is GREAT television. What I mean here is … TV I enjoy but that I can watch with only part of my brain. At least I think that is what I mean. I am entertained, but… it doesn’t truly reach down into my gut. I mean, I truly do love some of these shows but… maybe it’s the way I’m using them that is the trouble.
I know when I start bingeing on television that what I’m actually doing is avoiding my … self.
That there is something roiling and rising within me and I, for whatever reason, don’t want to deal with it.
On the days that I am feeling kindly towards myself, I will say “I’m just not ready” to face whatever it is that has driven me to the boobtube in this compulsive mode.
Some days, I will even watch myself watching things with a strange detatchment. I am fascinated by this woman sitting there for hours staring at the flashing lights. I always think, “What is she looking for? She seems to be looking for something.”
I had a binge a few days back.
This one had an obvious trigger.
I got some news.
Bad news. Sad news.
A loss in the family. My blood family.
My very complicated blood family. Complicated in all the usual ways. By distance. By ancient betrayals. By neglect and deep sorrow.
This news comes and pries open that aching “family” void in my middle and though I know that the only way past the pain is to step into the void and wade on through it…
to bring it to my scribble book…
to take it with me on the walk down the lane…
to let myself mourn and grieve…
though I know this, I turn instead to the flickering light.
I turn to the machine and I fill my eyes with images and my ears with other peoples words to occupy my mind with another story.
A story that is away away away from this pain.
And it doesn’t release anything.
And it doesn’t even soothe me. It just fills the time, steals the time.
And then… I read a blog post about a story… about a book… about a story I love in a book I love and I go and I pull that book off my shelf
and I read… A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger.
and then… I can weep.
And then, I can come back to putting words on the page.
And then, I can sit again in silence, with my sad self, and allow the sadness.
And then I can say farewell to the boy I barely know.
Farewell.
With love and squalor – pam
PS: Much thanks to Dolly Delightly for your fabulous, thoughtful post on Salinger on your Book Me book blog.
And, as always, much thanks to J.D. Salinger, whose stories remain fresh and full of power to this day.
Shake and Bake 1: The terror-I-zed edition
I’ve been having quite a blast exploring The Fluent Self, the fantastic blog/site WORLD of Havi Brooks.
I’m intrigued and pleased by Havi’s weekly round up ritual that she calls Friday Chickens…Chickens are soooo much funner than Check Ins…
and I hereby applaud her. Her blog was one of the first “stranger blogs” that I signed up to follow via email. Stranger as in… I haven’t met her in person . Though some might think the blog is strange — I think it is fantastic!
Every week, her Chickens land in my inbox and … they tickle me.
She is honest and hopeful and wise and … she doesn’t shirk on the hard bits.
I’m totally growing an internet crush on this gal and her duck.
C’mon.
If the duck doesn’t get you click on of those links up there… I just don’t know what will.
Anyhow – here’s my thing.
I do want to do a weekly check in with the world. Out loud.
I have no idea why I want to do this.
I think it is mainly…
- To see what happens.
- To see how things evolve as I continue work on the NIP.
- To take a FEW minutes to review the week and REMEMBER what happened.
- And to… tell someone.
- To write it down. For myself and for anyone else out there who might like to play along.
I would like it to be brief and not boring.
Havi’s Chickens are never boring.
I could and perhaps should and perhaps WILL join the gang over at TFS who do chickens along with Havi. That feels fun and do-able.
And I also want to put it here.
In case YOU would like to play and in case it evolves into something… even more fun… and/or triggers some discussion.
So… let me begin.
The Gnarbly Bits (being the hard stuff):
Sad news. Hard news. From far away. Not only distance far but… heart far. Deep in the ache far.
I don’t want to detail it here. But it aches and it hurts and… it has been a sad week for me.
Still feeling like I do not manage to produce ENOUGH work on the NIP.
Meaning, this week (and last week – which went by without a check in) a few days with no new words laid down in the NIP.
Some days held MANY words. But I want to find them daily. And I do not know why this seems so difficult for me.
Biggest hard – being mean to myself. Being mean and knowing it is … foolish and destructive and still not being able to stop.
What is UP with that?
The Tasty Bits (being the good stuff):
Talking with friends about the Sad News. Friends miles away but close in heart. Thank you.
Holding hands with my Love and him rubbing my back when the sadness seems too heavy.
Time on the guitar. Only bits of time, but time. Feels good.
Taking time to read and to enjoy the reading and not think I am “wasting” time.
Re-reading some Salinger which I talk about in the next post.
Reading a book on energy work and others on nutrition and natural healing. Also reading fun fiction/fantasy.
Doing this check in thing.
I think it is a good thing — but it feels quite horrifying to tell you the truth. Far too honest, I suppose.
And the inner dialogue begins (Imagine Thing One and Thing Two battling it out in my brain):
There is NO way you can post this on your blog.
No way.Why not?
It’s horrifying.
If you feel you need to do this stupid thing, you need to do it anonymously.Why?
Because… it’s whiny and weird and … ANYONE could read it.
Look, Maybe you should just do it for yourself.Yeah. Maybe.
Or you could post it over on Havi’s blog.
Yeah. I could do that.
But what is the big deal? Why is the idea of this thing giving you such a panic attack?Oh my god, It’s true. I’m having a heart attack right now. Can you not feel that?
I can feel it but you are not having a heart attack. You are simply… anxious.
Oh, OK. I’m simply anxious. But seriously – tell me that you are NOT posting this on your blog.
It’s our blog.
Whatever. Promise me!
OK.
Really?
If that’s really what you want.
It is.
OK.
Are you sure?
Sure I’m sure. We’re in this together right?
It’s just that… I want you to write… better things for the blog. Y’know what I mean? I want you to make a site for us. An AUTHOR’S WEBSITE. You can’t be all blah blah nekkid up on some site that people will come to looking for your WORK. Jesus! If you feel a need to do that – get another site. Do it somewhere else. Don’t do it here. That’s mad.
Just out of curiousity… what happens if I’m all “blah blah nekkid” on here?
People will see it and they will think we are CRAZY.
Do you think Havi is crazy?
No, but that’s different. That’s her mission – to help people get destuckified. So she shares her process with people. You don’t need to share your process with people. What does it have to DO with anything?
Well, doesn’t it have to do with the writing? With finding our way to the stories we need to tell.
To what even you seem to think are the important stories that we want to tell?
Doesn’t it have to do with how we are finding our way through this thing, this … life? And doesn’t that have to do with the writing?Maybe. But… Well… Still, you can’t do it!
Because it will compromise our mission?
Because it’s FREAKING EMBARRASSING!
And being embarrassed will compromise us as an artist?
Well…. Oh I don’t know. Shut up!
And what do you think your mission…. our mission is?
To make maps that help people find there way out of the dark…sometimes. Sometimes just to … entertain.
Really. Really?
Oh shut up with the “really” in that tone. Did you not hear Jian and Neil Genslinger on Q on Friday? The snarky “really” is so on it’s way out.
…silence… and a tone full look from the soul-full one.
(The other one sighs in frustration, knowing she will never get through to the hippy-dip and make her see sense). Do whatever you want. See if I care.
Well, I’m not gonna post it if you are going to pout about it for the whole weekend.
Go ahead. Flash all your ugly bits right out there. What do I care if you want to be a big flasher face.
My ugly bits?
Hard things are ugly.
Oh, Sweety. They aren’t ugly. They’re just human.
Will you at least follow up this Saturday or Sunday Shake and Bake Chicken/Check In thing with some kind of… literary post?
You mean bury it?
I mean don’t leave it hanging up there. People can find these check in chickens if they want to. But please, promise that you will keep it short and that you will IMMEDIATELY follow it with something more… interesting… than your personal scabbage.
I can do that.
Fine.
Fine.
And so it goes…
The Shake and Bake is hereby born. I hereby, as queen of this particular chunk of cyberland, declare this Edition One.
Future editions will much shorter.
Unless I continue to talk to myself.
Thanks for stopping by.
go easy -p
The Deals We Make with ourselves…
Woke with THE FEARS this morning.
The fear I get when I don’t think I’m “working hard enough”.
Sigh.
Things are actually going quite well, but had a few days this week where I slipped off my newISH “1000 wds per day” rule.
We are doing more insulating on the shack and the kitchen ceiling which we thought would take 2 hours took 6 and then… well… It’s what it always is… just life innit?
But today is another day….
And another chance to begin again.
Seems like all week I’ve been tripping over pieces about DEALS we writers make with ourselves to keep ourselves at it.
Sipping tea and spiralling down my newest favourite bunny hole over on Susan Swan’s Blog – I read about how she originally made a deal with herself to sit for four hours at her desk and work – writing, researching, thinking about what she was writing. She went so far as to have a sheet where she signed herself in and out. EVENTUALLY the four hours became part of her every day routine.
I pick up a copy of O Magazine in the waiting room at the doctor’s office the other day and read a piece by Aimee Bender.
called Why the Best Way to Get Creative Is to Make Some Rules wherein she lays out how she has been faithful to her two-hours-a-day writing routine every morning, five or six days per week, for almost 17 years.
And the most fascinating part of this, for me, is that she STOPS at the 2 hour mark. Even if she is on a roll.
She holds the 2 hours sacred.
She holds herself to the rigid time structure as a way to FREE herself.
You have to read the article to really get it – but what I love is that she has found a way to make… “a declaration against the regular dread I used to feel all the time when I wasn’t writing.”
She found her way to overcome THE FEARS.
That is exactly what I’m aiming for.
Words or Hours… a Writer’s Contract with myself feels to be just what the Doctor ordered.
How was your week – writing wise?
Do you have a routine?
A schedule?
Or do you wing it?
Thanks for stopping by.
Here’s a smile before you go.
Remember Fraggle Rock?
Here’s Ben Folds Five and the Fraggles – rockin’ out with DO IT ANYWAY
Go easy -p
Related articles
- Writerly Non-Problems (alphabeticallyinclined.wordpress.com)
The Scent of Old Book
Hey all!
Figuring out a way to gather shiny bits of loveliness from the web and share them with you here. This is a lovely post from Multo about the power of scent…
It’s a lovely read. Especially for those of us who haunt used book stores and libraries. Who love the feel and the smell of books in our hands. And for those of us who are carried back in time by the smell of….
Pop over and take a look if you get the chance.
go easy -p
Places I read
some places i hang out
Pam Bustin 