One Page Per Day

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."  ~William Wordsworth

There is a website that I am not recommending, called One Page a Day. It’s a nifty, simple idea, and I don’t mean to be critical of the site or its creator. The site provides a blank page for writers to write one page every day, “free of the tyranny of the infinite page.”

I have three points to make about this:

1. I don’t know about you, but I have never felt oppressed by more than one piece of paper or an unending page.
2. If there are those who feel tyrannized by the infinite page, then have you ever thought of just writing on a single page of Word or notepaper?
3. Isn’t this just one more electronic distraction?

For those of you who can’t resist checking out the site, here is the link: One.Page.Per.Day

Charming Notes

“I guess this book is the 18-hour version of how to make a literary life. The 18-minute version, simplicity itself, is in this paragraph: a thousand words a day (or two hours of revision) five days a week, for the rest of your life, and—and!—one charming note (or a phone call that makes your hands sweat), five days a week, for the rest of your life.” – Carolyn See, Making a Literary Life

Carolyn See’s advice is simple; write a charming note to a novelist, editor, journalist, poet, sculptor, etc. every single day. In her book, Making a Literary Life, she devotes an entire chapter to this notion, even suggesting the size of the stationery.

I don’t do this every day. In fact, I do this about twice a year. I wrote to Barbara Kingsolver one year and got a reply back. It was thrilling. Even more thrilling is when I get a note or an email from a reader. A note is more exciting because it entails effort, but even a remark from one of my blog followers is worth more than a gold, frankincense or myrrh (although I am not sure how much myrrh is worth).

Happy New Year

“Loafing is the most productive part of a writer's life.” - James Norman Hall

Usually I begin the year with a fresh journal, but in 2010 I was too involved with other aspects of life to keep much of a daily log.

In keeping with the notion of a fresh start, I cleaned up my email. I have been torturing myself with emails, telling myself that I will get to them later, then rereading and reshelving them umpteen times.  I have a second email address that is just for newsletters, information, and retail-related emails - anything that isn’t personal or business goes to the other email account. I haven’t even checked it in over a month, and it had accumulated hundreds of unnecessary pieces of info directed to me.

Today, I unsubscribed myself from nearly everything. No more emails from political or social agencies; no more Kodak, Snapfish, or Shutterfly. The vegan newsletter is gone, so is the Word of the Day. Bye to Angie’s List, Borders, Abes and Barnes and Nobles. Sorry to an end to slavery, hunger, and death penalty abolition – I still care about you, but I don’t want to hear from you. Ta Ta to vitamin sellers, nursing magazines, herb newsletters, and shoes. On and on, it went, until I was unsubscribed from everything I received and had not read in the past two months.

Then, I went to my regular email box and using suggestions I had read in a great blog, Zen Habits, I purged until I reached cyber-peace. It’s like starting with a blank slate.

May 2011 be a writerly one, and please don't send me an email for at least a day. Just once I want to stare at an empty in-box.

Christmas Wishes

Dear Santa,

I have been very good this year. I have almost finished my book, and if you saw all that I had to deal with this year, you would be impressed. Assuming you are impressed, then you will probably want to get me everything on my Christmas wish list. I want:

• A hefty gift certificate to the Levinger’s catalog
• A Mac Desktop
• A new book contract
• Lots of comfy pajamas - Pajamas are the one thing that Hugh Heffner got right.  I write better in my pajamas.
• An end to hunger
• World peace

However, if I can only have one thing on my list, please choose between an end to hunger and world peace.

Love,

Lucinda

To my readers, whatever holiday you do or do not follow, I hope it is a merry one.

Exclamations!!!!!

"Exclamation points are the most irritating of all. Look! they say, look at what I just said! How amazing is my thought! It is like being forced to watch someone else’s small child jumping up and down crazily in the center of the living room shouting to attract attention. If a sentence really has something of importance to say, something quite remarkable, it doesn’t need a mark to point it out. And if it is really, after all, a banal sentence needing more zing, the exclamation point simply emphasizes its banality!" 

— Lewis Thomas

 

One of my favorite writing pointers is, “Never use exclamation points unless absolutely necessary!!!!!!” Punctuation is the mortar that holds our words together, but the words are the bricks. You can still build something with bricks and no mortar, but mortar without bricks doesn’t make anything. The goal is to find words that are the exclamation marks.

Speaking of which, exclamation marks used in an email header is a red flag suggesting possible spam. The same is true for capital letters. I delete everything that is capitalized and exclaimed. Spammers take note: “CLAIM YOUR MILION DOLLARS TODAY!!!!” is lousy English. Try, “Claim your million dollars today” Don’t forget to spell check.

Revisions

“I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.” -  James Michener

I was talking to another writer about writing (what else do writers talk about?). She told me she likes to write, but she loathes revising. I am the opposite. I fall in the Anne Lamott camp of writing – I write shitty first drafts. Rewriting isn’t always fun, but it is so rewarding to watch everything come together. It’s like making a quilt. The first draft is like a bunch of cut up pieces of fabric. The revision is like putting the quilt together, watching all those words magically coming together.

Blog-block

"Yes, it's hard to write, but it's harder not to." - Carl Van Doren

I am experiencing blog-block. Between Thanksgiving, my family being here for 12 days, power outages, and holiday hoopla, my writing has slacked off. Every moment goes to the book, so when I think about blogging, my mind goes numb. Blogging is a commitment, and like all commitments, sometimes there is enthusiasm, sometimes there isn’t. However, the commitment is still there, even if I can’t seem to muster up a single witty comment or insight.

The bottom line is that we must keep writing, no matter what.