or, Why We Stop Before We Find Cohen’s Truer, Realer Sentence - Sometimes we get discouraged before we find "our truth". The secret to motivation: keep writing!
It's funny, one of the things I've learned since starting this Substack is that we *all* need reminding sometimes! I can't tell you how many times I've found myself in a bind, and I go back to one of my own posts for the answer...
I was just talking to my wife today about experience bias -- totally unrelated to this post. But that's what it boils down to sometimes. We *know* this fact or another, but we somehow still believe that it doesn't apply to us because we're experts or this situation is different or some other silly little blind spot.
It's all part of the process. Glad to hear this post was helpful!
Leonard Cohen's words ring really, really true. I waiver between thinking that writing is just pushing through, so to speak, and accepting the occasional inspiration. Both are ture, probably, but the catching is in the sometimes drudgery of writing the obvious, platitudinal, and easy. My post today could very well be a footnote to your wisdom, Graham. Pages and pages and hours and hours of pen-pushing. For a few lines....
Ha, I was thinking along similar lines when I read your post this morning, Mark! I've been mulling it in the back of my mind to compose a good response for you. I wouldn't say "footnote" though. More like theory vs. practice complementary posts.
Great stuff, Graham. You put a fresh spin on this that really made it hit home. One of the reasons I prefer to write in longhand is that it's easier to think of it as 'draft zero' - you can scribble on the page, doodle, annotate in the margins, prove to yourself that none of this has to stick. This is your playing at the surface, and so long as I keep at it I naturally sink into something more worthwhile. And I really like the sound of your literary pilgrimages - perhaps you should organise one for others to join!
Oh, that's a great idea -- long-hand to start with. Or really, anything that's out of your ordinary. Something to get you out of your head that this is "serious" writing and allows you to just scribble and as you say, annotate in the margins (literally or figuratively!).
I love your idea for a group literary pilgrimage. I've done a cafe crawl of Paris -- maybe a pub crawl of London? Dublin? (I can already check off Joyce's Temple Bar...) Edinburgh?
All of those sound great. My publisher is based in Oxford and I regularly pass pubs where Tolkien and other legends used to hold court. You can almost feel the stories coming out of the stones in that city and it's pretty inspiring!
I know all this, but I really needed to hear it again today. Thanks!
It's funny, one of the things I've learned since starting this Substack is that we *all* need reminding sometimes! I can't tell you how many times I've found myself in a bind, and I go back to one of my own posts for the answer...
I was just talking to my wife today about experience bias -- totally unrelated to this post. But that's what it boils down to sometimes. We *know* this fact or another, but we somehow still believe that it doesn't apply to us because we're experts or this situation is different or some other silly little blind spot.
It's all part of the process. Glad to hear this post was helpful!
"There is a crack/ a crack/in everything/that's how the light gets in..."
Nice! Another metaphor to add to the mixed. Write until it cracks and the real stuff can flow in.
Or somthing like that... lol
Leonard Cohen's words ring really, really true. I waiver between thinking that writing is just pushing through, so to speak, and accepting the occasional inspiration. Both are ture, probably, but the catching is in the sometimes drudgery of writing the obvious, platitudinal, and easy. My post today could very well be a footnote to your wisdom, Graham. Pages and pages and hours and hours of pen-pushing. For a few lines....
Thanks for this.
Ha, I was thinking along similar lines when I read your post this morning, Mark! I've been mulling it in the back of my mind to compose a good response for you. I wouldn't say "footnote" though. More like theory vs. practice complementary posts.
(Everyone else reading this: check out Mark's post here -- he shares a bit of the process that went into writing three sonnets, which as Mark says, aligns nicely with this post: https://technocomplex.substack.com/p/to-splash-into-the-western-deep)
Pages and hours of pen-pushing are almost always worth it, in my mind. Especially if you're having fun doing it!
Great stuff, Graham. You put a fresh spin on this that really made it hit home. One of the reasons I prefer to write in longhand is that it's easier to think of it as 'draft zero' - you can scribble on the page, doodle, annotate in the margins, prove to yourself that none of this has to stick. This is your playing at the surface, and so long as I keep at it I naturally sink into something more worthwhile. And I really like the sound of your literary pilgrimages - perhaps you should organise one for others to join!
Oh, that's a great idea -- long-hand to start with. Or really, anything that's out of your ordinary. Something to get you out of your head that this is "serious" writing and allows you to just scribble and as you say, annotate in the margins (literally or figuratively!).
I love your idea for a group literary pilgrimage. I've done a cafe crawl of Paris -- maybe a pub crawl of London? Dublin? (I can already check off Joyce's Temple Bar...) Edinburgh?
All three?
All of those sound great. My publisher is based in Oxford and I regularly pass pubs where Tolkien and other legends used to hold court. You can almost feel the stories coming out of the stones in that city and it's pretty inspiring!
Ha! Well maybe next time I'm there, you can lead the pilgrimage!
Funny enough, my son and his finacé are on their way to Aylesbury on Thursday...
Ah, Aylesbury's an atmospheric spot. Stories in those stones, for sure! Would be a pleasure to explore literary Oxford with you...
Looking forward to it already!