Thursday, November 12, 2009

Looking For Meaning In All The Write Places

"Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up. But the writing is a way of not allowing those things to destroy you." John Edgar Wideman

Family; relationships; friendships;

the meaning of life; the ancestors from whom we came;

the grandchildren who will come after us, for whom we need to protect the environment;

the uniqueness, individuality and diversity that make the world such an intoxicating, maddening, crazy, scary, exciting place.

Nothing comes properly into focus until I write it down. It's a way of decoding the world, of making sense of the nonsense, of bringing order to the chaos, of not allowing life to eat me up.

One essential requirement for coherent writing is sleep; sleep that "knits up the raveled sleeve of care." Since NaBloPoMo began, I've been burning the midnight oil. There are bags under my eyes; yawns in my throat; ants in my pants and meaningless jangling in my brain. Early to bed tonight, perchance to dream of brilliant things to write, or creative excuses not to..... on the morrow. Goodnight!

8 comments:

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

Well, you managed to wring out an interesting post just about the process of wringing out an interesting post! Good luck with the rest of the month!

Pauline said...

I had a writing professor who used to say that when all else failed, you could always write about writing ;)

I always felt writing was a way of preserving a viewpoint, like taking a snapshot with words. Sometimes I go back and read things I've written and see that indeed, they provide a kind of clarity on a situation but I am hardly ever aware of writing for that reason while I'm doing it. I just like trying to put pictures into words...

thailandchani said...

I think of it as preserving history. My mother sent me a list some time back of ancestors going back several hundred years. I kept wishing I had some idea of their lives, their thoughts, their wisdom. The Mormons have a practice of keeping journals and I've always thought it's a good practice.


~*

StitchinByTheLake said...

Molly have you told us exactly what NoBloPoMo is? If so, I missed it! blessings, marlene

Meggie said...

I enjoyed this post, very much!

Pam said...

Yes indeed. This is why I've kept a diary since I was 15. But on the other hand, I'm sure most of it is complete drivel...

(I think the dancers' t-shirts said "Learn to dance", actually. I assume they were an advert. Also, wasn't it "The Secret Scriptures"? I must be in a nitpicky mood; anyway, "TSS" is indeed a great book. I thought of you and Rise as I read it. )

riseoutofme said...

Reading books? You have time to be reading?

Thimbleanna said...

It's a new day, and here I am waiting for your latest missive. I do hate to nag, but you're almost out of time! ;-)