I had a post for you, towards the end of last year, then fear stopped me. It wasn\u2019t good enough I thought, but then it never really is for me\u2026or rarely. Whenever I pick up a pen\u2026well, actually I don\u2019t pick up a pen much anymore, but it just sounds so much more poetic than grab my laptop, which is what I typically do now, which is how I\u2019m writing right now. But anyway, back to the sentence at hand. Ahem, whenever I pick up a pen, I do so with the hope that whatever I write will be great, will be thought of as great, first by me, then by somebody else. I want it to be moving. Soul-stirring. Sentences so good you\u2019ll want to read them aloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever read sentences like that? Zora Neal Hurston has some in her autobiography \u201cDust Tracks on a Road.\u201d She has sentences so good, I was underlining them and I wasn\u2019t even reading it for school, or some class assignment. I was reading purely for pleasure, yet felt I needed to remember where these lines were in case I wanted to reference them again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m sure you\u2019re probably wondering what these lines are. Perhaps one day I\u2019ll reveal them to you. But right now I\u2019m sitting on my bed; it\u2019s 10:31 at night and I don\u2019t feel like getting up to get the book and look for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the point is, I want to write sentences like that all the time. I\u2019ll toot my own horn and say I\u2019ve written a few. They come to me once it a blue moon. Though I must say, I take little to no credit for them. When that happens, it\u2019s like the Spirit of the Lord takes over me, and I\u2019m just a vessel. I had no part in it. I simply wrote the genius that popped in my mind. It was just\u2026how\u2019s that saying go? A flash in a pan, only meant to be temporary, and yet I want it to last forever. Want it to be at my beck and call, to use whenever I desire. But God says no, you gotta put in the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so I write, this year to put in the work. I\u2019m giving myself permission to write shit. To not be perfect. To not even try to be perfect. I mean of course trying not to be careless, but overall, just trying to be a writer \u2013 just writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was reading this book by this director named Sidney Lumet. He\u2019s directed several big movies, several famous movies, but the one I\u2019ve come to know his name from is \u201cThe Wiz\u201d the black and soulful adaption of L. Frank Baum\u2019s \u201cThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz.\u201d I\u2019ve heard that the movie had tons of bad reviews, and was a box office flop in its day, but I gives no fucks, I love that movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So anyway, I was reading this book he wrote\u2014he being Sidney Lumet\u2014and in one of the chapters he was talking about he was teaching someone, or somebody was teaching somewhere \u2013 I believe it was a photography class. Anyway, in order to pass this class the students had an assignment to choose from one of two options: take a bunch of random pictures everyday or take one really good, well-crafted picture. And what he found was that the best photos came from the students who took a bunch of random photos, rather than those who spent so much time crafting the \u201cperfect\u201d photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To me, that just underscores the fact that you get better by doing. And that if I just keep writing, I might have to first churn out scores of junk, but inevitably I\u2019ll get to the good stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So bear with me if you\u2019re reading this or any subsequent post and thinking, \u201cwhat the fuck?\u201d Just know that sooner or later you\u2019ll get to the good part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And who\u2019s to say when or where the good part is? It\u2019s all subjective. Perhaps it\u2019s even now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had a post for you, towards the end of last year, then fear stopped me. It wasn\u2019t good enough I thought, but then it never really is for me\u2026or rarely. Whenever I pick up a pen\u2026well, actually I don\u2019t…<\/p>\n