William Blake's tips for writing

“To sum up–if you want to write:

  1. Know that you have talent, are original and have something important to say.
  2. Know that it is good to work. Work with love and think of liking it when you do it. It is easy and interesting. It is a privilege. There is nothing hard about it but your anxious vanity and fear of failure.
  3. Write freely, recklessly, in first drafts.
  4. Tackle anything you want to–novels, plays, anything. Only remember Blake’s admonition: “Better to strangle an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.”
  5. Don’t be afraid of writing bad stories. To discover what is wrong with a story write two new ones and then go back to it.
  6. Don’t fret or be ashamed of what you have written in the past. How I always suffered from this! How I would regurgitate out of my memory (and still do) some nauseous little lumps of things I had written! But don’t do this. Go on to the next. And fight against this tendency, which is much of it due not to splendid modesty, but a lack of self-respect. We are too ready (women especially) not to stand by what we have said or done. Often it is a way of forestalling criticism, saying hurriedly: “I know it is awful!” before anyone else does. Very bad and cowardly. It is so conceited and timid to be ashamed of one’s mistakes. Of course they are mistakes. Go on to the next.
  7. Try to discover your true, honest, untheoretical self.
  8. Don’t think of yourself as an intestinal tract and tangle of nerves in the skull, that will not work unless you drink coffee. Think of yourself as incandescent power, illuminated perhaps and forever talked to by God and his messengers. Remember how wonderful you are, what a miracle! Think if Tiffany’s made a mosquito, how wonderful we would think it was!
  9. If you are never satisfied with what you write, that is a good sign. It means your vision can see so far that it is hard to come up to it. Again I say, the only unfortunate people are the glib ones, immediately satisfied with their work. To them the ocean is only knee-deep.
  10. 10. When discouraged, remember what van Gogh said: “If you hear a voice within you saying: you are no painter, then paint by all means, lad, and that voice will be silenced, but only by working.”
  11. Don’t be afraid of yourself when you write. Don’t check-rein yourself. If you are afraid of being sentimental, say, for heaven’s sake be as sentimental as you can or feel like being! Then you will probably pass through to the other side and slough off sentimentality because you understand it at last and really don’t care about it.
  12. Don’t always be appraising yourself, wondering if you are better or worse than other writers.”I will not Reason & Compare,” said Blake; “my business is to Create.” Besides, since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of Time, you are incomparable.”

From: Ueland, Brenda (2010-04-21). If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit. Bottom of the Hill Publishing. Kindle Edition.

So apparently I'm the only idiot swimming on Jan 3 at night

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12 miles of trail running bliss

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Has to run off that German chocolate cake from last night.

Easy like Sunday morning

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If you need me, I’ll be here for the next three hours.

The coffee tipping point

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Yes. I am simultaneously brewing Turkisk and espresso for consumption.

Where I spent the last three hours

Play list:

Eminem
Mobu
Run Lola Run Soundtrack
Tron Soundtrack

Celebrating Creativity

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Halloween started for me yesterday morning when I took a break at work to use the bathroom. On the way, I learned that the office hosted a pumpkin-carving contest. People were huddled around a few tables where the submissions sat on display. My first reaction was – “Oh, these people are in my way to the bathroom” – so I walked the group of cubicles and made my way to the bathroom another way.

Later in the day (on my way to the bathroom again), I walked by and really looked at the pumpkins. I chatted with coworker also admiring the art. Wow. There was a miniature Death Star, a larger pumpkin head eating a smaller one, and a pumpkin sitting on a toilet, reading the company health care benefits information, with its guts on a plate underneath it as excrement. Pretty darn creative.

I said – “I hope we’re using these people’s creativity at work somehow.” Then I thought – “I’m not sure if I’m jealous of these people that they have the time to do this or that I’m happy that I’m so busy that I don’t have the time to do this stuff.” Sadly I didn’t even take the time to walk back to my office to grab my iPhone to snap a picture of all of them. By the time I went back a third time in the day, most of the pumpkins were gone – people left early to enjoy family time. I think the answer is both.

I too left work early to meet my family and friends at the Downtown Davis Treat-or-Treat festival. All of the local shops host trick-or-treating in the afternoon. Kids and families everywhere. It. Was. So. Cool. Dads like me dressed in their work clothes with mothers and children parading around in their costumes. Remember spending weeks thinking and talking about your costume? “I’m going to be Spiderman” and “I’m going to be Harry Potter.”

In the evening, I walked the neighborhood with my son. I watched the families parading about the street trick-or-treating. Homes were well-lit to signal that there’s candy and joy to be had. I watched an old man sitting in his house watch me. He thought my son and I were trick-or-treaters so he stood up to prepare for the pending visit that never came. A young mother with her son sat stood outside of her house. We exchanged pleasantries about the Downtown Davis Trick-or-Treat festival and how wonderful of an idea it was.

Around the corner, two guys sat in lawn chair with their dog simply chatting. I walk by that house almost every night with my son and they are never outside. But it was Halloween. It was an excuse to act differently. Halloween was a special day for everyone for no other reason than we all decided that it would be a special day. A day to celebrate. A day to be creative. A day to make different. A day to break from our routine. We should do this more often.

The two suns of Tatooine

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Ukiah

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Firing up on Monday morning

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My temp office this AM.