Writing, writer, determination

“I see a writer’s ability as standing on three legs, like the tripods Homer speaks of as being dedicated to the gods. Talent, experience, and literary background. Add to these the container that holds the flame: determination.”– David Poyer

I have read this quote over and over again the past few days. I’ve been wondering what are the odds of me ever becoming a true writer, given that the only thing I seem to possess is the container that holds the flame–determination.

Writing about rain, storm

This morning, I’ve woken to a storm. Or may be I actually woke to the threat of one. Dark skies, distant rumbles, an occasional streak over the trees far away. The wind came through the open windows and made billowing sails of my red curtains.

And then it came, the angry storm, in drops as big as my palm, the gale carrying them almost parallel to the ground. I shut down all doors and windows and retreated behind my desk. It has been raining for a quarter of an hour now, and I cannot see much beyond the hazy outlines of nearby houses. The roads and the cars that must be speeding down them are invisible. I can see yellow lights in windows at 8 am.

Another new day.

Strange how nature sometimes decides to reflect the landscape within you. Think I will go stand outside on my balcony, let the shower cool my spirit.

Writing on blogging: to blog or not to blog

I have been getting hundreds of visits from condron.us after submitting to their site. So the hit counter looks good. But the number of comments do not.

I have never been very good at getting comments on any of my blogs, but I think, even my writing blog, which gets fewer visitors, gets more comments. This blog, which many mention to me in conversations, Malaysians as well as people further afield, gets comments only from Darc, Annie, Kym and Indigo. Thanks, guys.

Time to upgrade my content on this blog, I think, which I’ve been using more or less as a journal. But recently, I’ve felt that I have a lot riding piggy-back on me, and I have hardly any energy left over for committed, enthusiastic blogging.

I suppose these are phases. For the last month I’ve preferred to write in my notebook, and do other kinds of writing—blogging has somewhat taken a back seat.

The question is: should I only blog when the urge takes me– which could be once a month–or keep tapping away everyday not only to justify the name of this blog but also hoping that I’ll get my blogging rhythm back?

Writing and self-doubt

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.

~Sylvia Plath

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I’ve come across many budding writers who are scared to open up, to write about what affects them the most. It takes courage to spill out blood and guts. I’m not sure yet if it is ok to publish it as it is, unchanged, but it is definitely necessary to write down the experiences. These experiences, when dug out mercilessly and without self-pity, form the fount of some of the most moving fiction.

Write or Die

Writing practice ideas

I’ve been having a lot of fun with Write or Die these past few days. I always choose the Kamikaze option, and the best I’ve manged is about 600 words in ten minutes, but that is also cos I’m a lousy typer! Well, the output is hardly presentable, but between this site and Onetwofiver I’m all sorted out where writing practice is concerned. Not stuff you would send to an editor, but the kind of garbage that needs to come out before you start your writing day. Today’s onetwofiver led to this:

The joy of writing lies in letting a world, people and events emerge in my head, and then jump through the portal of my hands on to a screen or paper, from where they can make the transition into another head, another imagination. They then transmute, change, take on different appearances. For no two heads can ever have the same fancy, and fancy colors all to which it is a home.

On some days it is hard, and meaningless. There is no thought, let alone creation. But who knows, these could be good days too, because it is in the land of no thought that the biggest ideas are born.

Thought is an enemy to a certain extent, it can be allowed in only when the muse has done her mad dance, her hair flying, her laughter ringing in the imagination. She adjusts her clothes, changes her stance, and spreads her cloak holding all that shine and sparkle and darkness under her, giving birth to people, to ideas, to entire worlds.

And then comes thought, with its twin blades of logic and reason, and sets about cutting and snipping and trimming. And finally they are ready, the children of my muse, to travel using the written word, to invade curious minds, to make new homes in different arbors of imagination.

How do you like to do your daily writing practice?

Writing off the cuff

Writing on reading Sula

I have found recently that writing off the cuff is not as easy as it once was. My mind was not complicated earlier by words like plot, structure, pace, POV…

Nor is reading as easy. Because though I immensely enjoyed reading “Sula” by Toni Morrison, I was analyzing it at the same time…how did she do this or that or another?

How about you? Do you think learning more on how to write limits your spontaneity in some way?

Writing about pondering questions

Does this hold true for writing?

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”

Writing about gritting teeth

Writing can be a challenge some days—today was one of those.

The reality of the following line hit home today:

So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it.  ~Harold Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948

Writing about blogging, search terms, word count

I made posts on my writing blog and my group blog today (both of which I’d love for you to visit), so by rights, I should not be posting here. New posting rules in my life say:  “Thou shalt not post on more than 2 blogs on any given day.”

But I’m a little under the weather and can’t sleep, so this post which should have come up tomorrow gets written today. So, sue me.

Firstly, I have a bone to pick with a few people, though I don’t know who they are. Lately a lot of people have been reaching my blog using the following search terms:

• “crocodile skin cut ritual”

• “naked women fishing”

• “body of lady”

• “oiled body”

• “pooped”

• “blood spatter”

• “body of the lady with no dress”

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……….

Enough said.

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I notice that I have not been posting word counts, so here goes:

28 Feb- 300

1 Mar- 0

2 Mar- 615

3 Mar- 200

4 Mar- 117

5 Mar- 0, but revised a story

6 Mar- 0, but revised another story

7 Mar- 327

8 Mar- 657

9 Mar- 547, revised a story

10 Mar- 815

Poor showing, I know.*curls up and hides under the table*

Writing about Pimp This Bum

Timothy Edwards, the "Bum" in question

I came across this site on Stumbleupon, and then saw it on Yahoo News.

I do not know what to think, but I’d rather err on the side of positivity.

A lot of people have praised the effort, the making of a homeless man the symbol of all the homeless. Here’s a man, funny, educated, living on the streets, and he does not have a home. He does not blame others or fate for his plight, only himself. Why not help this man?

Others are calling it exploitation.

For me, I feel if it is not a hoax (an actor dressing up as a homeless man etc.) then it is better than a spade of celebrity websites out there, which pimp the celebrities. Pimping a bum seems positively useful and noble in comparison. And the calculated lash out at human sensibilities has worked before to get the job done, so why not now?

It is sad and a terrible comment on humanity that it takes a viral marketing campaign to get us arguing about the homeless instead of Victoria Beckham’s latest outfit on the internet, but if this brings some attention to the plight of homeless people, not just in the States, but the world over, is that such a bad thing?

It might become an internet sensation/ ironic joke/ human circus, with Timothy, the main participant ending up a millionaire, while other homeless friends of his continue the way they are. I hope that does not become the case, and Timothy gets a real job soon.

I just pray (not too naively, I hope) that some good comes out of this, and that the founders of this website actually realize and carry out the moral responsibility of what they have started.