Comments on Life on the High Wire: In Other Words, The “Shut Up and Shop” Magnet on M...

Brilliant!

2010-01-25T13:45:53.384-05:00

Brilliant!

S.O.C.K.S.= eso si que es. It is what is.

2010-01-25T13:14:16.162-05:00

S.O.C.K.S.= eso si que es. It is what is.

You all are so amazing. Truly. Thank you for talki...

2010-01-25T09:07:25.077-05:00

You all are so amazing. Truly. Thank you for talking with me - with us - about this. You've given me much to think about.

(Barb - Housekeeping is one of my favorite novels ever. And SOCKS? Que?)

I am thinking now of how we, as writers, often str...

2010-01-24T11:31:34.686-05:00

I am thinking now of how we, as writers, often struggle against what we lack, what we fail to do. I frequently read advice to writers, which never seems to say what I believe is true: some people don't write every day. Never have. Never will. Some people work best in fits and starts. And fits and starts are fine if that is who/how you are. Trying to change that always reminds me of a villanelle that a friend of mine wrote. The poem's epigram comes from Marilyn Robinson's HOUSEKEEPING:

"So whatever we may lose, every craving gives it back to us again...to crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow."
--M.Robinson

"I've meant to learn to drink my coffee black,
to live without the sweetness and the cream,
to love the bitter warmth of what I lack." --Jean Bourg

Deonne, thanks for providing this playground for discussion. No doubt it takes up some of the time you could be spending on your manuscript. But it gives, too. And giving benefits everyone geometrically.

I'm going to go paint a room now. S.O.C.K.S. (For those of you who know Spanish.)

My trouble is getting over-excited in too many dir...

2010-01-24T00:16:18.917-05:00

My trouble is getting over-excited in too many directions at once, not wanting to make choices or set priorities, and then burning out on everything the same week. I have a hard time monitoring involvement. I took a Japanese class last winter as a refresher, and I spent several hours a day working on language skills for the whole semester. Writing? Second priority. Then I started up piano lessons again, and I sat down to play for one or two hours a day. Writing? Again, only after everything else was done.
In other words: The time is there. It's all about making the commitment for me. And that may mean passing up a couple of other opportunities along the way, at least until I've mastered the art of daily writing practice.

I've been working on and off throughout the MF...

2010-01-21T21:51:43.065-05:00

I've been working on and off throughout the MFA, often on gigs that require 40 hours a week. I'm doing that now, too and remember that when I posted about it a while ago you left a smart comment. You said that your writing/working balance was something you were happy with, "for now." Which is probably key and I think is also what Barb Johnson was talking about. The ebb and flow. What is doable in the short term might not be sustainable for the long term. But the opportunities it can provide you while you have the energy and drive are exciting.

You hit the nail on the head noting "none of this is forever." It's the best attitude, I think. Great post!

Before I even comment on Opportunity and Time. I ...

2010-01-21T14:31:22.264-05:00

Before I even comment on Opportunity and Time. I love my Kindle DX and I'd rather not live without it. It's where I get my dose of New York Times every day and where I browse Tag sales and garage sales for Out of Print Books from Amazon and have them push them to me electronically for nada or close to nada, like 69Cents. Whoever heard you could charge a debit from Amazon for 69Cents and their happy to do it. At least I think they are.

On Opportunity or Time, today I decided to delete My video tape copy of Othello(a homespun, hometown version of a play I shot)from the Avid space I put it on. (Avid, a grown man's Final Cut). Putting off the completion until June or July when I might have time to reshoot some Close Up Scenes. I pulled the plug Barb.

ABC Good Morning America has decided to give me hours to fit in other work, so on a given day in February I'm booked to work GMA at 5AM completion by 10:45AM, then arrive at NYU to Work 11AM on a Bloomberg Debate until 9PM, for a completely different braodcaster(Bloomberg not ABC).

If I start my day at 3:23Am on the train, reading my Kindle and head home on a 9:39PM train reading my Kindle. Especially because Amazon offers the Whispernet for free and I can read Lifeonthehighwire on my kindle with no Data charges I never lose pace with Deonne girl who lifts my spirits.

Last year it was Imus in the morning on Urban TV (4:30AM) then Fox News for Hannity and Colmes99PM Show), (now Imus is with Fox). But that was last year, this around the clock is not forever, you see what you like, you see what toll it takes what nurturing you can take from it, what good it does you in its time, then as Barb says you pull the plug. A Warning from Life on the Surface from a much earlier post in comment to you. Beware the Day you are counting the money in your and your thoughts aren't worth the penny you wanted to share with someone. Your a good spirit and you wish only goodness to those around you, but on the day you lose your temper refrain, rethink, recenter, remember you can always rewrite.

I don't think of opportunity and time as being...

2010-01-21T11:48:36.393-05:00

I don't think of opportunity and time as being either/or. I think of them as ebb and flow.

To an extent, the more you do, the more you're able to do. To an extent. While being in an MFA program is, ostensibly, a time to write, it is also, as you pointed out, a time to meet people you wouldn't ordinarily meet, to pick up skills, to practice them. And maybe, just maybe, have a little fun.

When I think now of working full time at several jobs and producing,as our program required, a new short story every 3 weeks, it seems inconceivable. I doubt it's a pace I could keep up forever. But it was a fevered pace that was sustainable for a while. Being in an MFA program is like having runners' euphoria for a few years.

"But then with all these opportunities, I’ll have far less time to devote to the writing, which is why I came here in the first place."

The key is that you are in charge of pulling the plug. Something made you pull the plug on Taos and go to NY. No doubt there have been other plug-pullings in your life.

Writing books is scary, and sometimes we fill up the time we should be writing with other stuff just to prove that it's impossible to write a book. But all that time, we are still in charge of pulling the plug. And sometimes all those jobs are teaching us things, direct and indirect lessons required for writing a book. For instance, how good it feels to stop.

"Also, none of this is forever."

Ebb and flow. Crazy busy followed by contemplative. Too much of one often leads to the other, and all the while, it's your hand hovering over the off switch.

Or, you know, something.