Reading and Writing
Some of you seem to be rather into creative writing, judging from the many such posts, Anaconda's being the latest.
There is nice fiction being written here, as well, as it seems, some kind of pseudo-fiction.
Back in my one creative writing class in college I wrote my only two pieces of fiction. One was a story on how the numbers one through nine related to the Happy Days characters. Fonzie was, of course, number one. Potsie was four. Ralph Malph was five. My other paper was relating those same characters to colors. Ralph was orange, Richie was blue, Potsie was either brown or purple. I really like organization and mapping and it explains why I really love personality tests (Which Golden Girl Are You? being my favorite). You can also imagine my pleasure when finding Ken Nordine’s album on colors years later.
They say women are really into organizing things, more so than men. But probably the reason I don't write anything similarly super creatively is because I'm just too interested in lots of different things. I am not consumed by writing, or making music, or painting, etc. I am consumed by organization, and the system of things.
I realize a good portion of pursuing a traditional art is built on practice, but I don't know how much of it is. I have a feeling a lot is based on talent.
I see you guys seemingly whip it out. Nicely done. Must be related to being musicians, which I am not.
I can't even imagine writing out the whole thing, "Charles told her forcefully, blah blah blah..." Or whatever.
This isn't the only blog for which I write. It was actually written into my goals to write for my company's blog and that was a bit daunting. So, I started writing very similarly to how I do it here, just feeling my way through. One of the early comments sums up how I did: "U R Dumb." Thanks.
I continue working on writing and hope I learn something along with other potential readers. I will most likely never be a fiction writer, but could possibly be a good blogger that can change with the times. I think I’ll probably always be a better reader than writer and that is still worth something.
Reminds me of something an old boyfriend told me long ago that I thought silly, but now, makes me think. He would rate people on how well-read they were. How pompous. Pretentious. But hey, if you are well read, you can't help but have picked up new ideas, new stories, and all of that.
Regardless of how some guy 20 years ago tainted my value of reading, what is now important is that reading is now justified! Ha HA! To help gain these new viewpoints, as well as enjoy the play with words and how ideas are expressed via the written word, one must read, so hey, I know you need something over there, but, can't you see that I'm READING. Back off buster.
This is exciting to me as I barely have time to read, but it is now rated as Important in my mind and deserves attention and time, though I have little to spare. I’ll take my reading time when I can, whether it be on the toilet, in bed, or in an actual reading chair with good lighting nearby.
You can write. You can make music.
I will read and listen.
My offering of the day musically is one of my favorite writers, Jonathan
Lethem. He apparently has moved into being in a band and his music is here,
under the band name I'm Not Jim.
Books you might like, Gun, With Occasional Music, or, Motherless Brooklyn, or As She Climbed Across The Table, or his latest, You Don¹t Love Me Yet, a history of an imaginary indie band called Monster Eyes.
There is nice fiction being written here, as well, as it seems, some kind of pseudo-fiction.
Back in my one creative writing class in college I wrote my only two pieces of fiction. One was a story on how the numbers one through nine related to the Happy Days characters. Fonzie was, of course, number one. Potsie was four. Ralph Malph was five. My other paper was relating those same characters to colors. Ralph was orange, Richie was blue, Potsie was either brown or purple. I really like organization and mapping and it explains why I really love personality tests (Which Golden Girl Are You? being my favorite). You can also imagine my pleasure when finding Ken Nordine’s album on colors years later.
They say women are really into organizing things, more so than men. But probably the reason I don't write anything similarly super creatively is because I'm just too interested in lots of different things. I am not consumed by writing, or making music, or painting, etc. I am consumed by organization, and the system of things.
I realize a good portion of pursuing a traditional art is built on practice, but I don't know how much of it is. I have a feeling a lot is based on talent.
I see you guys seemingly whip it out. Nicely done. Must be related to being musicians, which I am not.
I can't even imagine writing out the whole thing, "Charles told her forcefully, blah blah blah..." Or whatever.
This isn't the only blog for which I write. It was actually written into my goals to write for my company's blog and that was a bit daunting. So, I started writing very similarly to how I do it here, just feeling my way through. One of the early comments sums up how I did: "U R Dumb." Thanks.
I continue working on writing and hope I learn something along with other potential readers. I will most likely never be a fiction writer, but could possibly be a good blogger that can change with the times. I think I’ll probably always be a better reader than writer and that is still worth something.
Reminds me of something an old boyfriend told me long ago that I thought silly, but now, makes me think. He would rate people on how well-read they were. How pompous. Pretentious. But hey, if you are well read, you can't help but have picked up new ideas, new stories, and all of that.
Regardless of how some guy 20 years ago tainted my value of reading, what is now important is that reading is now justified! Ha HA! To help gain these new viewpoints, as well as enjoy the play with words and how ideas are expressed via the written word, one must read, so hey, I know you need something over there, but, can't you see that I'm READING. Back off buster.
This is exciting to me as I barely have time to read, but it is now rated as Important in my mind and deserves attention and time, though I have little to spare. I’ll take my reading time when I can, whether it be on the toilet, in bed, or in an actual reading chair with good lighting nearby.
You can write. You can make music.
I will read and listen.
My offering of the day musically is one of my favorite writers, Jonathan
Lethem. He apparently has moved into being in a band and his music is here,
under the band name I'm Not Jim.
Books you might like, Gun, With Occasional Music, or, Motherless Brooklyn, or As She Climbed Across The Table, or his latest, You Don¹t Love Me Yet, a history of an imaginary indie band called Monster Eyes.
Labels: jonathan lethem, reading, writing
3 Comments:
Fiction to me is just what you call it when you don't want people to be offended by what you write (Oh that character is not based on you at all, it's just fiction).
By the same token, non-fiction is what you call it when you dont think you'll be taken seriously enough (it really did happen, it's non-fiction).
Mostly fiction and non-fiction are labels others should give to the writing. Cause really, all writing has elements of both.
I love writing that rides the line so well it ends up questioning reality itself. Most of the stuff coming out of the Theosophical Society at the turn of the 20th century, Jung, Castañeda, Lem, Herodotus, the bible... stuff like that. It's non-fiction? impossible!
As for organizing, that should be my middle name. I am a borderline OCD organizer (some would claim i'm certifiable). And that is one of the things I love about both writing and music. They both involve organizing. one organizes words, other organizes sounds. They both organize reality.
That last post of mine is a perfect example of organized reality.
Gave me a lot to think about there Stacey, thanks.
God, I wish I had more time to be involved with the NAP; it's going some really interesting places.
But all I have time now to say is this: Jonathan Lethem's masterpiece is THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE. (Although I haven't read AS SHE CLIMBED ACROSS THE TABLE.) I found YOU DON'T LOVE ME YET pretty minor afterwards, sort of the MICROSERFS of the indie rock scene, which isn't meant to be a complete dis (I liked MICROSERFS) but it's not playing the same ballgame that THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE is.
good post. like carlos, i believe that writing is organizing reality. i don't think that any of us "just whip it out". almost every decent thing i have ever written was incubating in my head for a long time.
having the simple desire to write is the main thing that makes one a writer. people who are not meant to write just don't think about writing like i don't think about being a formula 1 race car driver. reading is the next most important thing because you need points of reference to help you find your writing voice. writing is like anything else in that you get better the more you do it. if you write nothing but a two paragraph blog entry every day, a year from now you will be surprised at how much better your writing is.
carlos, your last post was excellent, but it hit me on a bad personal level that you could not have been aware of. in 1996, someone close to me was struck and killed on their bike while listening to a terribly ironic pice of music. i will try to write about this on my blog tonight.
stacey, have you ever read sean stewart? he writes excellent fantasy novels for grown ups. Galveston, Mockingbird, and especially Perfect Circle are faves of mine. the last two take place in montrose area houston.
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