Well, I'll be damned.
When I started this thing 3 weeks ago, I wasn't sure I'd even be able to maintain the level of discipline necessary to post to a blog. I fretted about it all the time--in fact, there are little scraps of paper all over the house with notes like "big head" or "VIC card lady" written on them. I'm always worried I'm going to run out of material.
In the blog world, I've responded to several questions about how long the hiatus between school and writing again really is. My feeling has always been: indefinite. I don't know why--whether it was the intensity of my focus during school, or school's duration, or just general exhaustion related the kind of drama and constant examination that writing seemed to demand--but I've never had more than a fleeting urge to write since May 2003.
Suddenly it seems to me that these little scraps of paper are quite a bit like the little scraps of paper I kept when I was writing fiction--a word or two, a funny line, a tiny summarized idea. I used to like Wendy's advice about joining 3 unrelated things--like confetti, my papers: shake together, pull 3, make story. I've found that all week I've been thinking and hearing like a writer again, imagining beginnings, finding dialogue, looking for counterpoint. Maybe it's nothing--maybe in a week I'll find myself back to my normal routines and my notes for the blog will be just that: notes for the blog.
I've got a bunch of stories left over from school. I've always referred to them as false starts--two pages or less, a set up I loved enough to never get rid of, but ultimately, for whatever reason, never got finished. Do you writers have these too? Want to trade and finish each other's stories? Could be fun.
P.S. The "big head" note refers to the fact that I have an abnormally large noggin. It seems normal when you look at me, but I can't buy hats in stores. Even my friend Bernie's huge cowboy hat perches atop my head like a bird's nest. Last Halloween my friend Michelle raced around Bernie's house screaming, "Megsie's got a huge head!" Just wanted to share that little bit of humiliation with you.
5 comments:
Me too--haven't written a thing since graduating, don't care to...most of the time. Every once in a while there is that feeling, like hmmm, maybe. Someday? I hope you do. Your blog is endlessly entertaining, and you can quote me on that.
Sadly, I don't really have anything that's unfinished-- not that I finished every single thing I ever started, but mostly because I didn't end up saving the ones I didn't finish.
But since I can't trade unfinished stuff, we could trade titles and see what happens. I'll do "Abulance," you do "Christopher Kills Me." Could be genius!
Laura wanted me to tell you she wants to trade, that she's got hundreds of beginnings. Psst, pass it on!
Laura and I would be a pretty good match, I think. How do I get in touch with her? Speaking of which, do you know how to get in touch with me?
of course not, that would be too easy. laura wanted to post, but she's not a cool blogger like the restofus.
shoot me an email?
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