One Moment

I am signed up for Reverb's "Reflect and Manifest" project for December.  They provide a writing prompt every day during the month for bloggers to write about.

December 1 - Moment
Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

The last sliver of golden sun hung over the mountains, and we watched it disappear.  The transition from light to dark seemed more sudden here than in the ordered routine of our normal lives, and it was almost as dramatic as someone turning out the lights.

We were sprawled on a slab of solid granite, assembled on loose boulders for chairs and our legs were stretched out in front of us.  I passed out Dominican cigarillos that I had bought at the Duty Free store of some forgotten airport, and we lit them with matches.  The flask went around a few times.  Lies were told, stories were embellished and perfected, and we soaked in the dirt and the fatigue and the peace and the calm. 


The stars began appearing, more and more by the minute, a thousand thousand jewels sparkling and shining, so clear and perfect.  It was painfully and perfectly beautiful.  I felt calm and alert and completely comfortable.  High in the eastern Sierras, surrounded by close friends and family, I felt alive.

Artist's Way Morning Pages

    One of my goal's this year was to take time to think my own thoughts.  This could come in the form of meditation, long solo hikes or stream of conscious writing.  Actually and preferably, it would take the form of all three. 
    Over the last three weeks, I have been consistent about writing in a stream of conscious style every morning.  You can read more about the whats and whys here, but the basics are as follows:

• Write until you have completed 3 pages, long-hand.  Even if you just write "I don't know what to say" over and over again, get all 3 pages.
• Write as soon as possible after waking.  For me, I hit the power button on the coffee maker and start writing immediately.  I want as little outside influence as possible.  Waiting for a few hours allows your brain to get bombarded by commercials, work stress, and whatever the hell else you got going in life.
• Don't feel like the writing has to make sense, or follow any kind of formatting rules, or follow any kind of rules really.  Just write.

    While I usually mock such excercises as being a bit too "hippy-dippy," this has actually helped quite a bit just in the short time that I have been doing it.  Since it allows my mind to wander, I tend to circle back to the things in my life that actually matter and are important to me.  Problems in my life find natural solutions, and I come up with a lot of good ideas during these sessions.  In fact, I have taken to keep my dayplanner close at hand, because I almost always come up with 3-4 things that I want to make sure that I follow-up with.
    More than anything, this practice has given me the mindset that I am "starting the day off right," and everything else is better because of it. 

Wall Street Journal Interview with Cormac McCarthy

One of my favorite authors is Cormac McCarthy, creator of "The Road," "No Country for Old Men," "Cities of the Plains," "Blood Meridian," and others. While I typically prefer authors who write short and sparse sentences in the Hemingway mold, McCarthy is far from that. Some people find his books too wordy, and he does make a point of being very descriptive, but I just find his work incredible. Everything is dark, from the setting of his stories to the characters. I have heard his style described as "Southern Gothic," drawing comparisons to William Faulkner, and that sounds pretty accurate.

McCarthy is something of a recluse, and usually shuns interviews. I won't type out the whole discussion from the Wall Street Journal, but I did find some of his answers to be very interesting.

WSJ: How does the notion of aging and death affect the work that you do? Has it become more urgent?

CM: Your future gets shorter and you recognize that. In recent years, I have had no desire to do anything but work and be with my son. I hear people talking about going on a vacation or something and I think, what is that about? I have no desire to go on a trip. My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That's heaven. That's gold and anything else is a waste of time.

WSJ: How does that ticking clock affect your work? Does it make you want to write more shorter pieces, or to cap things off with a large, all-encompassing work?

CM: I'm not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn't take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.

WSJ: The last five years of your life have seemed very productive for you. Have there been fallow periods in your writing?

CM: I don't think there's any rich period or fallow period. That's just a perception that you get from what's published. Your busiest day might be watching some ants carrying bread crumbs. Someone asked Flannery O'Connor why she wrote, and she said, "Because I'm good at it." And I think that's the right answer. If you're good at something it's very hard not to do it. In talking to older people who have had good lives, inevitably half of them will say, "the most significant thing in my life is that I have been extraordinarily lucky." And when you hear that you know you're hearing the truth. It doesn't diminish their talent or industry. You can have all that and fail.

NaNoWriMo - Day 7

I'm still behind, but today was some of my best writing so far. Not that it matters really, since the important thing is volume, but I was able to focus more deeply on the story today than any other day prior. I think what helped is my decision to just write about different episodes or scenes of the story instead of going through it chronologically. It seemed to help a lot with writer's block.

Word Count (Expected): 11,662
Word Count (Actual): 6,717

NaNoWriMo - Day 6 Part II

Ok, I am a little ashamed of my pathetic whining below. I will continue on with the same story. One thing that should help is that I can ignore what I have already written. Since I am unsure which direction I want the story to go, I can write different scenarios, conversations, etc. and just scrap the ones I don't like or don't match in the editing process.

As we were then...

NaNoWriMo - Day 6

In over my head. The story's plot was nice and neat in my outline, but it is all over the place now. It's not even the same story. Got about 1,300 words in today, whilst nursing a hang-over, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting the story on track. I may have bitten off more than I can chew for a first novel. Something more simple as a storyline like "The Old Man and the Sea" may have been a better idea.

Debating whether to scrap this story for a different one, and just start again tonight at midnight for the official challenge.

Word Count: 5,701

NaNoWriMo - Day 5

What utter crap this story is turning into. And I am way behind. Need to write about 2,700 words on both Saturday and Sunday to catch up.

Swell. That should go great with my hangover.

Word Count: 4,435
Pages: About 11.5

NaNoWriMo - Day 3

Today was my lowest output since starting, and I am currently at only 65% of the volume that I should be at. It wasn't a complete waste though. I spent a lot of time thinking about my story, and I have a much clearer picture of where I want things to go. That doesn't mean that the story will listen, but I do feel a bit more confident than I did yesterday.

Word Count: 607/3,185

NaNoWriMo - Day 2

I thought this would be hard, and it's harder than I thought. 2,500 words in and my story is already going all over the place. My characters aren't acting the way they are supposed to, and my plot gets bigger and smaller at the same time. I am also not writing fast enough, due to my desire to edit, erase and change what I have just written.

I need to just let go a bit, word-dump everything for a month, and then pick up the pieces afterward.

No more editing. Even if something new contradicts something old, no more editing.

Word Count: 1,208/2,625

NaNoWriMo - Day 1

As my trip to Thailand cuts November a bit short for me, Day 1 of National Writing Month will begin today. Now, actually. Right after this blog post. And after I check facebook one more time.

I am armed with a fresh pot of coffee (black), a phone on silent, a playlist of "This Will Destroy You," and loose scraps of a story that just might turn out to be decent.

I am a bit daunted by the task. I have to write 50,000 words in 30 days, and my current tally is zero.

Here we go.

Word Count: 1,374/1,374