it is quite late, say 12:00 in the... morning. Well I'm sorry about that mistake, I meant it is quite early. You see I wanted to stay up because I found a little green packet of Tazo Zen tea in my bedroom, which I have such a heart-tug for, even though I've never tried it before tonight. I think my friend Amy sent it to me. And I drink tea sip by sip, very slowly, so it has taken me a long time since I made it an hour ago. I am about halfway done with the cup.
I am considering staying up the entire evening, to see the sunrise and write of it. There is something so special about staying up, waiting and waiting for the sun to rise. Unfortunately it is difficult for a person such as me. So I may fall asleep on the living room couch if I cannot make it.
Dr. Greene said I'm trying to live a 26-hour day, which I think is so funny. He also said he is not concerned about my caffeine intake, which is "only" four shots a day. I am relieved.
I can see the moon from here, behind a pine tree, and it is white.
Great book, by Ms. Julia Cameron... "The Artist's Way". Yes, go get it from your library, it is very popular and you should be able to find it. I am going through the 12-week course. It is these kind of books--the open, dreamy ones--that really get my heart pumping to write. And they are the only ones that actually encourage me to write better, and in my own way.
Nothing is more important than that. If you don't write like yourself, you'll never be original. Think Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Stephen King, James Joyce, Ray Bradbury. Completely different styles. What if Fitzgerald wanted to write just like Hemingway? or Stephen King wanted to write just like Ray Bradbury? You would just have books flat and dull and untrue stocking the bookshelves. Not that there aren't already millions of books like that out there, but we would really miss the true gems. The long, waltzing, fantastic sentences of Ray Bradbury... the bold starkness of Hemingway.
And,
to leave you with something of Ray Bradbury's to chew on,
from his incredible book "Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity",
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."
"Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things."
"Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down."
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
3 comments:
Welcome to posting a comment on my blog; I thank you for clicking here and I'm sure we will be fast friends if we aren't already, since I love people who comment. But I don't really like people who nit-pick my blog. That tends to get nowhere with me except to make me first laugh, then blush, and finally growl. Not to mention it doesn't make the nit-picker look particulary good either. However, if you would really like to nitpick, email me at cierrawrites@gmail.com. I may or may not reply, but I'll always love you since you commented anyway. Alright, comment away!
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Cierra - please pray.
ReplyDeleteDad just had a minor heart attack.
Oh my gosh. I will.
ReplyDeletei love tazo zen tea (& refresh <3<3) and the first two of those three quotes, but for me, the philosophy of the last never seems to work toward that of the first two, largely because of something which someone else said, although i don't recall who: "[nothing you write that you hope to be any good ever will be.]", or something like that. perhaps i have difficulty seeing cliffs as such, though, because when i hear "cliff", i hear of a place which i already know to be magical- a place where death and life meet and trade shoes a little. i don't entirely agree with either quote, for me, actually, but i value all perspectives. after all, it is art, and i am happy to have others exploring the rest of the world of existence alongside me so that i need only be concerned with representing my own. just that is stressful enough, at times; Lord knows.
ReplyDelete