April's coming! I did the NaPo WriMo thing last year, and although at least 2/3 of what I wrote was pure crap, I wrote at least a couple of poems I doubt I would have written without the discipline of making myself write every day. I don't think I'd want to try to write a poem a day forever, but a month of it is good. See baby-eating monster for details!
* * * * *
I have the biggest stack of books in my to-read pile now. It's not even funny. There are so many of them, and so many that I am extra excited about reading, that I don't even know where to start. People. Stop publishing books for a while, will ya? I need to catch up!
(It's becoming more and more clear to me that while it's important to become disciplined about writing, what I really need to do right now is to get more disciplined about reading. I need to set aside an hour every evening for disappearing into my study with a book. When I'm reading well, writing almost inevitably follows. Maybe I need to have myself a NaPoReadMo! Because I sure do need to read mo'.)
* * * * *
Welcome Carol Guess to the blogosphere! I just stumbled across her blog, Syntax Is A Second Skin, today. I got to know Carol a bit when she was here in Bloomington, studying at IU. Her novels and her "hybrid memoir" are terrific, but I love her poetry the best; Femme's Dictionary, her first collection, is beautiful and dangerous.
* * * * *
I'll be one of the featured readers at the Runcible Spoon's monthly reading tomorrow evening. Last night I rummaged through the past year's output (or so) and came up with what I think is a nice little fifteen-minute set. (I was told "15 to 20" so in the interest of not being one of Those Readers, I'm making it 15.) Tonight I need to practice reading through them a few times, because it feels like I haven't read in a long time. I think I'm going to read something very new and kind of scary-feeling, something that's still very much in process, just to see how it feels coming out of my mouth with people listening. I think that will help me revise the thing. Anyway, I'm looking forward to it. Terry Wisniewski is one of the other readers, and she is one of my favorite local poets, so hearing her will be something to look forward to as well.
* * * * *
Found out this week that my mom is having hip replacement surgery next month, so I will most likely be headed up north to help her out for a week or so. Sadly, this means I'll be missing Sherman Alexie's reading here. But with a little luck I'll at least be able to use some of the time productively, and get a bunch of reading done. We've been through this before, or something like it; she had a knee replaced in 2004, and I spent some time doing the caretaker thang then.
In other family news, happy Second Arbitrarily-Assigned Birthday to my orange-and-white cat, Lotus. He was found as a stray (taken to a shelter, then to Rescue Farm, and eventually home with me) so who knows what his real birthday is, but he was about 6 months old when I got him at the end of September, and March 22nd was my dad's birthday and also the birthday of my previous orange-and-white cat Yoda (1986-2004), so it seemed like a felicitous Arbitrary Birthday to select. That's him in my little profile picture up there. He doesn't look a day over Arbitrary Kittenhood.
P.S. Today someone found my blog by googling the phrase "procrastination device." Muahahahahaha. My evil plan is working!
11 comments:
hiya! thanks for mentioning my work in your blog. i'm new to this electronic city, but so far i'm managing the terrain. i'll add your blog to my links. and my new book, _Love Is A Map I Must Not Set On Fire_, is coming out this summer ...
I miss the Runcible Spoon so much!
thanks A, be well,
C
I may try the poem-a-day thing this year, just for fun. Have to wait and see how it goes.
One of the things I like about the blog world: where else could you encounter the sentence "see baby-eating monster for details" ?
And regarding the part about "procrastination device": yes, truly an evil plan. BTW, after I saw your recent post about Multislacking, I decided to make what small efforts I can to popularize the word. Today at work (the billing department of a large corporation), several of us started talking about forming an Olympic multislacking team.
I just wanted you to be aware of what you've started... :-)
Carol: I'll look forward to the new book!
Lyle: I didn't start it -- I found it here... I love the idea of an Olympic multislacking team, though! *grin*
86 to 04!? HOLY MOLY.
MM: 18 isn't at all unheard-of for a cat! I've had two cats who have made it to 18. My mom had one who lived to be 23. :) I'm hoping for 20 with my current boys... *fingers crossed*
I'm glad you'll be writing every day. I'm also glad you'll be reading every day. Readers are a scarce resource to be highly valued and nurtured and well-treated. I think of readers lovingly each time I clip away unnecessary words from my work. It's how I pledge my love.
Oh Queen of Blogs, Is it hard to figure out what words brought searchers to our doors? Most of the new readers I get are other writers I cite who googled their names to check on their Web presence. But I would like to know if people searched for relevant words or were magnetized by something random and odd. Like "procrastination device."
Garbo - I use Sitemeter to find out stats about my blog visitors. There's a little doohickey way down at the bottom of my blog that will link you over to the Sitemeter site to find out more about it. It works okay, I guess; I don't really need anything more powerful than the free version they offer.
I had been meaning to google "procrastination device" for a while now but haven't gotten around to it.
*smile*
Brent
I totally agree with you about "When I'm reading well, writing almost inevitably follows."
I have a specified period of time to write every day and if the writing doesn't go well, I read instead. Reading and writing really do play into each other and usually once I start reading, I find the inspiration to get some writing done.
How was the reading Friday night?
Brent: Smartass! (I meant to post that like three days ago when you commented, of course. Hee.)
William: That's a good idea. I tend to start off by reading and then find that if I read the right stuff, the move to my own writing happens naturally. But your way could work too.
Laine: Um, it was OK, except for the storyteller who went next to last (I was last) and who went on for, I swear, over 40 minutes. (We were supposed to have 15-20 each.) I ended up cutting my set short because people were just too tired and fidgety to pay attention. Sigh. I'll email you with more details. :)
Post a Comment