Friday, July 24, 2009

Day six six six

?Day six. Must put fingers to keyboard. Must report to outside world. Must write about the "writing for young adults" lab at Sage Hill Writing Experience. Well today was individual meetings. All sorts of interesting discussions. Which character should I kill? Did I kill enough? Kill your darlings. Kill your not so darlings. A very murderous day.

Oh, the picture is of one of the "meditative structures" on St. Michael's land.

Later, Richard Ford spoke to us very eloquently about writing. It was a Q&A session. A few points that my tiny brain remembers--
creative writing classes are a victimless crime, no one gets hurt by bad writing that never sees the light of day.
Get over the existential dread of writing the first sentence of a book. The second sentence won't have quite as much dread.
Listen for the rhythm of each sentence.
How much time do we actually spend writing? We talk about what we've written, we think about what we will write, but when do we actually write? That's why we're here. Pedal to the metal. Hammer down. End stop.

I'm abbreviating an hour long session. I think that'll be my next t-shirt--Pedal to the metal.

Art

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