Moving back into moving forward
Sep. 12th, 2006 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonGetting my life back in gear of the day: After my house move in November into a smaller space I was unpacking in a frenzy at first, searching for the necessities and getting them out of the garage and into my rooms. I was so happy to be out of the apartment from hell that I got downright giddy at first. The space restrictions caught up with me first, and I've had to make some decisions about just what were necessities and with the chaos left from that first frenzied unpacking. Large swatches of my life still remain unpacked in the garage.
One of the crucial things that are still packed are my art supplies. I've always been prone to making things, both in a art-for-art's-sake way and in a meditative/spiritual context. Since November that whole aspect of my life has been completely ignored. Not being able to make things makes the blues bluesier, makes me even more obsessive-compulsive than usual, deadens some of the senses of my creative animal. That nervous, self-devouring energy gets dissipated when I make things: it doesn't go into the object, it just ceases to exist. Nothing makes me feel more positive than when I successfully complete an art object and imbue it with a bit of my positive spirit. It's a whole other feeling from the warm, rich vibe I get from a good writing session. I need it as much as I need the writing, and I'd forgotten that.
So in recent weeks, I've been taking steps to get back that which has been lost. I still haven't found all my stuff, or have found it in random, frustrating bits—the jeweler's anvil and chasing hammer, but not the jewelry tools, for instance—but I've retrieved enough to make do and get creative with my hands again. And that's a peaceful, easy feeling. I'm moving in the right direction.
Quote of the day:
"Writers would be warm, loyal, and otherwise terrific people—if only they'd stop writing."
—Laura Miller, Salon.com review of "Finding Forrester"
To which I would answer, "Depends on the writer." Some of us would be much worse if we didn't write.
Writingness of the day: If I keep going at my present rate, I should be able to cut another 10k from Shivery Bones. Predicated on ifs, of course, but I'm amazed how many fat and wasteful phraselets I'm finding. In the case of the opening chapters, it's been downright embarrassing. I sent this out to people? Aiee. And in other even more boring news, the transfer of the ms. file to the new "purified" template seems to have worked: the word count and page count are consistent on both Macs and the PC and all versions of Word. Huzzah. Even better, the lowest word count is the one that's sticking. Huzzah, huzzah.
One of the crucial things that are still packed are my art supplies. I've always been prone to making things, both in a art-for-art's-sake way and in a meditative/spiritual context. Since November that whole aspect of my life has been completely ignored. Not being able to make things makes the blues bluesier, makes me even more obsessive-compulsive than usual, deadens some of the senses of my creative animal. That nervous, self-devouring energy gets dissipated when I make things: it doesn't go into the object, it just ceases to exist. Nothing makes me feel more positive than when I successfully complete an art object and imbue it with a bit of my positive spirit. It's a whole other feeling from the warm, rich vibe I get from a good writing session. I need it as much as I need the writing, and I'd forgotten that.
So in recent weeks, I've been taking steps to get back that which has been lost. I still haven't found all my stuff, or have found it in random, frustrating bits—the jeweler's anvil and chasing hammer, but not the jewelry tools, for instance—but I've retrieved enough to make do and get creative with my hands again. And that's a peaceful, easy feeling. I'm moving in the right direction.
Quote of the day:
"Writers would be warm, loyal, and otherwise terrific people—if only they'd stop writing."
—Laura Miller, Salon.com review of "Finding Forrester"
To which I would answer, "Depends on the writer." Some of us would be much worse if we didn't write.
Writingness of the day: If I keep going at my present rate, I should be able to cut another 10k from Shivery Bones. Predicated on ifs, of course, but I'm amazed how many fat and wasteful phraselets I'm finding. In the case of the opening chapters, it's been downright embarrassing. I sent this out to people? Aiee. And in other even more boring news, the transfer of the ms. file to the new "purified" template seems to have worked: the word count and page count are consistent on both Macs and the PC and all versions of Word. Huzzah. Even better, the lowest word count is the one that's sticking. Huzzah, huzzah.