This week Becca asks,
So, how about you? What do the three P’s of writing…practice, pleasure, profit…mean in your writing life?

First, let’s start with practice. . . this is what I do every day - at least five days a week, unless I”m not home. (That’s the break I give myself so that I don’t feel like I’m being selfish when I’m with friends). I get up every morning - feed the cats, make coffee, meditate, and then read a few pages from a writing book - right now, I’m reading Gayle Brandeis’ Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women who Write - and then journal for a bit. Then I write a “piece” - meaning I write through sometime that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. That’s my practice - for better or worse. And when I do it well, I feel like I’ve done my “real work,” as Sven Birkerts said.

As for pleasure, I have to admit that I don’t take pleasure in writing the way I do in a hot soaking bath or a great piece of cheese or even a good movie. In writing, the pleasure comes from knowing I did what I was supposed to do. I know that when I do that everything else is bonus - my paying job included. The real part of life for me is in writing. There’s pleasure in that reality, even if the act of writing itself is sometimes more painful than pleasant.
Occasionally, I take real pleasure in the writing, mostly when I find myself remembering something I thought I had forgotten or when I write to something new about life or about myself. There are glimpses of pleasure in the practice.

Profit - that’s a tricky one. I don’t write as my day job - I teach to make my living. But I do hope someday to make writing my main source of income. However, that profit motive will never take the place of the practice - as long as I maintain a balanced approach to life. These days, after I finish my practice and check email, I often spend a few hours doing more of what I call “The Business of Writing,” where I prepare submissions, look at markets, consider academic publications, and revise my work from my practice if it looks like it might go somewhere. That’s the work of writing (and ironically, I actually take pleasure in that part most of the time) - but that’s not the writing for me. That writing is in the practice.

To sum up, for me, writing is practice. I take pleasure in doing it (or in having it done), just as I always did in just sitting and playing the piano, working through a hard run of notes, not because I was ever going to perform but because there’s joy in the doing, even if there is no product.

“Practice Must Go On” by Baklein62

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I don’t usually do this, but today I thought I’d share what I wrote in my journal this morning.

I’m on a zig zagging path through the woods. I never stray from the path for there is no dirt or gravel or pavement to follow- only where my feet take me.

Isn’t it most important that we keep our heads up, our eyes forward, the finish line in sight? How much do we lose if we stare down at the ground, trying to find a clear path? Won’t we walk into trees then?

I wrote this because I’m trying to articulate how I see God in the world. I’m working that out in my writing, and here’s what I came to in my more “formal” (meaning I typed it) practice today.
“what I had wanted to show was that Christianity could be broader and more open to things than it is, that Jesus could take in yoga and meditation and vegetarianism and energy reading and prayer and chanting and walking in the rays of the moon, that Christians didn’t have to put up these walls.”
What is God is bigger than we let God seem most of the time? What if the “path” for each of us is different; can’t we get to the same place by different methods? What is Jesus’ statement that He is “the way” doesn’t mean that the Christian church, as we conceive it, is the way? What if Jesus’ way is broad and vast? What if Jesus appears in other religions - as Shiva or Buddha - or speaks through Mohommad? What if we simply lived our lives so that God is broad and wide and deep - as the Bible says God’s love is - instead of trying to close out those things that seem beyond our “path?” I wax idealistic here, but this is the world I want - this is the one I dream into being. . .

What is your view of God? Of religion? Of your path? Where does writing or reading fit in? For me, writing is the path where I find out more fully who I was created to be - that’s my path.

“Path by Pebbles” by LaTur

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Blogging, a definition - the writing world in which you can write about a fairly esoteric writing book and a stand-up comic in the same post. Don’t you love it?

Anyway, many of you have been asking about Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write, as a result of my Weekly Geeks post, so I thought I’d tackle that review first.
The book is subtitled “An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life,” and thus is about the ways that people can start a writing practice that focuses on writing for the sake of the process rather than the sake of the product. Julia Cameron puts it this way:
If we are invested in a writing life — as opposed to a writing career — then we are in it for the process and not the product. We are in it for the body of work and not for the quick hit of one well-realized piece.” (p. 66)

Each chapter of the book is on a different abstract concept related to writing such as “Mood” or “Voice” or “Making It”, and each chapters ends with an “Initiation Tool,” a writing exercise. The book reminds me of a combination of Lamott’s Bird by Bird and Goldberg’s Old Friend from Far Away because it combines thoughtful pondering on the practice as well as practical tools for the craft. Many of Cameron’s writing assignments are about how you feel, however, encouraging you to draw a bath or take a walk, whereas Goldberg’s exercises always take you to the page. I must confess that I prefer Goldberg’s method more, since Cameron wanders a bit too far into the psychology of writing for my taste. I feel like Cameron is a cheerleader for people who want to write anything, including journals (which is great, just not where I am) whereas Goldberg is a cheerleader for people who need to write for other people to read. Does that distinction make sense?

In terms of what I took away from this book, I appreciated it, but I did not find it as useful as Lamott or Goldberg. That fact may be a result of where I was in my writing when I read it - at a place where I wasn’t following a daily practice - but I think the book also waxes esoteric a bit too much, making me lose my grounding in my own writing. Additionally, Cameron largely discounts the intellect in writing practice, and while I certainly know writing comes from a deeper place than from the mind, it’s hard for me to see our knowledge and our understanding of the world intellectually as completely devoid of value in writing.

All in all, this is a great book for people who need to get a daily writing practice started or for people who truly have great anxiety or fear about their writing (I have been both of those people and still am on some days). It may simply not be for those who are already writing and simply need someone to walk beside them.

Has anyone else read this book or Julia Cameron’s other work? If so, what did you think about it? (And if you’ve reviewed her work, let me know, and I”ll link to it here.)

Thanks to Dewey, Alessandra, Chris, and “Adventures in Reading,” for your great questions.

_____________________________________
Now, a completely different topic. Do any of you watch Dave Chapelle, or did you before Chapelle’s Show went off the air? What do you think of him? Like him? Hate him? Find him not funny or hilarious? What do you think about his portrayal of women?

I ask because I’m writing an article on Dave Chapelle and feminism, and I’d love to include some of your thoughts, if you’re willing. If you’d like to share what you think, post a comment here or email me at andilit at gmail dot com. Please let me know if I can quote from you or if you’d prefer to remain anonymous. Thanks.

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So I just didn’t get much reading done this week, as sad as that is. I spent the first two days of the week in day-long meetings, and then drove to my parents’ in Virginia. My friend and I toddled around the farm, visited the library book sale (see below for a list of what I got), and then relaxed with the parentals. On Thursday, we made pickles and blackberry jam - yumMY! Then on Friday, we headed back; I prepped for a meeting, had the meeting, and then collapsed into bed to sleep for ten hours. Yesterday, I spent most of the day doing small things around the house and watching episodes of Digging for the Truth and MI-5; I just needed true down time.

But I always read before bed, and I had to do a bit of reading for my Friday meeting - so here’s what I’ve got for you:
A great essay called “Sandbags in the Archipelago” by Heather Elliot. (You can read the whole thing here.) It’s a witty, erotic story of a travel romance that made me want to pack my bags and head to a remote island (Easter Island comes to mind since it’s the remotest in the world) where I could disconnect from my life, at least physically and practically, and have some crazy fling with a beautiful man. The piece is also great writing - eloquent and subtle. Check it out if you have a few minutes and let me know what you think.

Another surprisingly interesting review book called Inquest on Imhotep by Derek Flower. I will review the book in full when I finish it, but it’s a complicated murder mystery that is set in Egypt and centers around the secret societies that surround the world of Imhotep, the architect of the pyramid at Saqqara. It’s good so far.

What I am noticing about my reading (and my TV viewing for that matter) is that right now I’m very invested in exploring worlds that have nothing - at least on a day to day basis - with my own existence. I seem to be craving some sort of escape, but alas, I will not get one this summer. I have only a month left, less in fact, before the semester starts and so much to do. But I hope to get away into these books, at least for a bit.

That said, I am still working toward my plan of building a place of respite in North Carolina. I have begun researching timber frame companies that can work with “green” plans, and I’m even starting to get some pictures of land that is available. So the dream moves forward, and for now, that’s my escape from every day.

How do you guys escape? Do you read? Watch TV? What do you read or watch? Or if you’re fortunate (and wise) enough to travel, where do you go? What places bring your soul back into balance? Where do you get respite?

“Respite” by D L Ennis - The caption under this photo in Flick reads, “A place where you can sit and listen to the gentle flow of water and dream a dream that soothes your soul!”

Books Bought
Welcome to My Country by Lauren Slater
Purple America by Rick Moody
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut

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Dewey has posted a great Weekly Geeks Challenge this week. Here it is:

1. In your blog, list any books you’ve read but haven’t reviewed yet. If you’re all caught up on reviews, maybe you could try this with whatever book(s) you finish this week.

4. Visit other Weekly Geeks and ask them some questions!

I’m going to a modification of this post since I have reviewed everything I’ve read recently; instead, here I’m listing books I’ve read earlier in my life. Then, I’ll take your questions about them and post on those questions in the next week. Sound okay?

Here are ten books I’ve read but haven’t reviewed. All of them are nonfiction, so perhaps all you creative nonfiction folks (or people who like to read nonfiction) have some questions or comments about them?
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

The Book of Honor by Ted Gup

My Misspent Youth by Meghan Daum

From Our House by Lee Martin

Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit

Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams

The Right to Write by Julia Cameron

Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris

Still Life with Oysters and Lemon by Mark Doty

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott

American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center by William Langewiesche

I have lots of good things to say about these, especially the last one, but mostly I’d be interesting in reading your thoughts on them or your questions - then later in the week, I’ll pick some of those comments and respond to them. So post away. . .

Meanwhile, I’m back for a couple of weeks, so my posts will be more regular. I have lots to say about writing and taking a break from it - so keep checking in, if you will.

Thanks for reading.

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