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Originally Blogging the Artist's Way. Thoughts, musings, experience of the 12-week course, January to March 2006. And after that?.... Life, creativity, writing. Where does it all meet? Here, perhaps.
Becca, of Becca's Byline, has kicked-off her summer series on writing with a question and an invitation to post our answers on our own blogs, linking back to her "Write on Wednesday" feature.
Her question this week is "Why in the world do you come to the page?"
I've never answered that question in any way that I haven't found someone else had already done more eloquently already. It seems that it is the same impulse in most of us that impels us to grab a pen or to start pounding a keyboard, and we express it in various phrases, but it boils down to this for me: If I don't, my brain will explode. Or implode. There will be consequences. That's all I know.
I can go for many weeks at a time without writing anything of much consequence. But that doesn't mean I'm not writing. I jot notes. I write lists. I've even been found transcribing passages from favourite books, just for the joy of writing those words, those words, over and over again.
What I want to write is sometimes a search for an answer to a question. I may be journalling a dialogue between parts of myself - asking and answering a series of questions, teasing out what it means to say any one thing, what are the implications, and how, how, how can I marry up the inconsistencies and confusions between my various ways of looking at things?
And then I may not be writing at all about my own internal process, my psychological battles, but of something or someone out there... a person entirely imaginary in their origin, a place I'm concocting as I write, a situation entirely divorced from the reality of my life. I may be writing a poem that simply attempts to be a word-sketch of some scene I've witnessed that has struck me as interesting, noteworthy, poignant, amusing, or so ordinary that we would all recognise it as part of our lives, if I can only find the way to convey it as I've seen it. And that's the impulse - to try to convey a reality - my reality - in a way that someone else can understand it. I never gained much facility with paintbrush or pencil in drawing what I see, but when I write, I leave a picture that will remind me later what it was I wanted to note, what I was moved by, what touched me in some way.
Because I love to read, I have to write. Because others' words move me, I have to write. Because I cannot always be talking, I have to write. Because there are so many words, because there are so many words, so many words....
If you choose to share your thoughts on the matter, do let me know, and especially, let Becca know please!
My previous Sunday Scribbling post about Writing is HERE.
posted by GreenishLady @ 1:42 pm
At 12/6/08 5:00 pm,  Robbin said...
Thanks for sharing that, and I did go over and make my contribution, though not nearly as beautifully as she or you did.
Thanks for checking in with me, again I can't tell you how much better your words make me feel. Hope you are having a good day and have wonderful plans for the up coming weekend.
At 12/6/08 7:04 pm,  Lady North said...
So true! the 'implode/explode' bit!I would like to add to that:
I Write To Remember.
We are facing a Departure of a dear family member and writing down his stories so they are Not Forgotten has become Very Important.
At 13/6/08 5:51 pm,  Tammy Brierly said...
I've joined up too! How cool that it has always been a part of you. I love how you write to remenber like a snapshot of something you've seen.
I have a laptop on my wish list. ;)
Enjoyed your Friday Feast Imelda!
At 14/6/08 1:20 am,  Becca said...
"To try to convey a reality - my reality - in a way that someone else can understand it..."
A resounding yes! to that.
I've loved reading everyone's posts, because most often they start out meandering around the subject, hemming and hawing a bit, and then as they warm up, by the end one resounding sentence that sums it all up stands out and clarifies their thoughts perfectly.
Thanks for adding your lovely words to the project :)
At 16/6/08 3:21 pm,  Karen said...
Whenever someone asks me this question, all I can answer is--"Because I'm miserable if I don't." I can actually feel the words piling up inside me--and if I don't heed that feeling, there WILL be an explosion...and it usually isn't pretty.