Paint If Empty or Tired

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brainpickings.org, handwriting, joan didion, journal, maria popova, mary gordon, new york times, notebooks, writers, writing

I started out tonight with an entirely different post in mind. Last week I received a notebook at work as a token of appreciation for Administrative Assistants Day. I am not what you might think of as an Administrative Assistant; I frequently refer to myself as an editor and that is how I am known in my group at work. My official title is Report Production Coordinator which involves quite a bit of word processing. Anyway however you want to describe it we editors were invited to join in on the Administrative Assistants Day fun, with a lunch and the presenting of a present; the afore-mentioned notebook. This is the fifth notebook I have received while working for my company; the others were presented as thank-yous or gifts for something or other. So I wanted to show you pictures of these notebooks but then I realized I forgot one of them at work (I actually do use one or two of them, at work). So that’s a post for another day.

In my despair at it being almost bedtime and my topic thwarted, I started reading this post from brainpickings.org. called Famous Advice on Writing: The Collected Wisdom of Great Writers. That was over an hour ago. So many great jumping off points in this article: Mary Gordon on the Joy of Notebooks and How Writing By Hand Catalyzes Creativity (omg was there ever a more perfect article for me?!?), Joan Didion on Keeping a Notebook, and The Daily Routines of Famous Writers, just to name a few. This hopscotching through articles could go on for some time. I want to write everything down in my journal but that would take weeks. Months maybe. And my apologies if I’ve already touched on some of these articles previously on here. There are over 600 posts now and I find my memory failing. I seem to recognize certain quotes but not others. So be indulgent with me if I repeat myself.

I hope you have as much fun as I did reading these amazing and inspiring articles. And then go write in your journal and just see what comes. You’ll be happily surprised, I guarantee it.

[T]he point of my keeping a notebook has never been, nor is it now, to have an accurate factual record of what I have been doing or thinking. That would be a different impulse entirely, an instinct for reality which I sometimes envy but do not possess. – Joan Didion

 

 

Forged Autographs and Stephen King

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autographs, handwriting, letters, stephen king, writers

I was reading this article on Tiger Pens and I love the line: Who says writing by hand is worthless? Who indeed. Those autograph scams can be nasty. I have a card that appears to be signed by Stephen King. A friend of mine picked up a copy of Desperation at a free book exchange for me; he knew I liked Stephen King but had no idea the card was inside.

I looked up his autograph and currently (if it’s real) it could be worth $100. He’s one of my fave authors and I just love having it in my collection.

It’s obviously machine typed, and I like how he capitalized the titles of his works. Christine was indeed published in 1983; April 29th to be exact. And The Talisman was published on Nov 8th of the following year. So the timeline fits.

I imagine him walking to the mailbox and dropping this off on a wintry Maine New Year’s Eve. Although I guess by 1982 he might have had an assistant to do stuff like that for him. Even if it turns out to be a fake signature I consider this a treasure. I was 12 in 1982; I was not living in Calgary then and do not know Christine Schippling. I wonder if she remembers receiving this in the mail – how thrilling for her to think that Stephen King just finished writing a book that shared her name!

Notebooks for NaNoWriMo

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nanowrimo, writers, writing

I was reading Ellen Gregory’s post You Can Never Have Too Many Notebooks (agreed) and was reminded of NaNoWriMo, which is just around the corner. NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. On November 1 participants start writing a novel. The goal is to have 50,000 words written by the last day of November. The website allows you to track your progress by encouraging you to keep track of your word count. They also send you pep talks throughout the month, and you can talk to writer buddies in the forums. On their How It Works page they also allude to cool stuff you can win if you reach 50,000 words. There are a number of facebook groups dedicated to NaNoWriMo too.

It’s just such a great idea. By adding where you live they introduce you to a community of like-minded writers you may have never discovered. I put my city in and was told there are almost 3,000 registered members!! And then I was presented with a list of events throughout the month at my local library. So cool!

I thought about doing it last year and am waffling on it again. I don’t really have a draft for a novel but I have received feedback on some of my Thursday writing exercises in that I could expand on those ideas in a longer form. I’m looking at my notebooks now – which one could hold 50,000 words? Hmmmmmmmmm……….  🙂

Whoever joins in on the fun, good luck with your novel. Maybe I’ll see you in the library!

William Blake and Jeremy Irons

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morgan library and museum, william blake, writers

From September 11, 2009, through to January 3, 2010 The Morgan Library and Museum in New York held an exhibition dedicated to William Blake called “William Blake’s World: A New Heaven is Begun.” The exhibition showcased Blake’s drawings, books of poetry and letters. If you want to take a walk through the online exhibit click here. 

But I think the best thing about this particular online exhibition are the mp3 recordings available on the Introduction page, featuring Jeremy Irons reading “Auguries of Innocence” and “The Tyger”. It’s been said Mr. Irons could make a phone book interesting, and this recording does not disappoint. Enjoy!

Image from http://www.themorgan.org/collections/works/blake/default.asp

You dance inside my chest

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morgan library and museum, poetry, rumi, writers

Who can remain unmoved when faced with a thought from Rumi?

In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.

From October 21, 2011 to January 29, 2012 the Morgan Library & Museum hosted the exhibition Treasures of Islamic Manuscript Painting from the Morgan, highlighting some of the extraordinary illustrated manuscripts and paintings in the Islamic tradition. One of the most beautiful is the illustrated life of Rumi (1207 – 1273).

Image from http://www.themorgan.org/collections/works/islamic/manuscriptEnlarge.asp?page=42

This panel shows Shams of Tabriz, Rumi’s spiritual instructor, in brown, looking at the reflection of the sun in a small pool, while Rumi points to the sun itself. The entwined cypress and fruit tree to the right is meant to convey the love the two had for each other.

If you haven’t read Rumi you can read some of his quotes here and Amazon offers many collections.

Charles Dickens at 200

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charles dickens, letters, morgan library and museum, writers

The collections of the Morgan Library & Museum contain a manuscript of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, written in a fever of creativity in six weeks in the fall of 1843. This manuscript and assorted letters were featured in the museum’s Charles Dickens at 200 exhibition, which ran from September 23, 2011 to February 12, 2012. Through the online exhibition, you can examine the manuscript page by page, which was apparently written in a single draft.

Image from http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/exhibition.asp?id=48

The letters are fascinating reading, and they provide insight into his creative habit. The following quote is from a letter to Sophie Verena, a young German novelist, who dedicated her first book to Dickens:

In reply to your second question whether I dictate, I answer with a smile that I can as soon imagine a painter dictating his pictures. No. I write every word of my books with my own hand, and do not write them very quickly either. I write with great care and pains (being passionately fond of my art, and thinking it worth any trouble), and persevere, and work hard.

And further advice in support of a vigorous exercise regimen:

You must remember that in all your literary aspiration, and whether thinking or writing, it is indispensably necessary to relieve that wear and tear of the mind by some other exertion that may be wholesomely set against it.

It is comforting to know that this most beloved and prolific of authors had his troubles with writer’s block just like the rest of us. In 1862 he told Wilkie Collins:

Sometimes, in a desperate state, I seize a pen, and resolve to precipitate myself upon a story. Then I get up again with a forehead as gnarled as the oak tree outside the window, and find all the lines in my face that ought to be on the blank paper.

Beatrix Potter: The Picture Letters

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beatrix potter, letters, morgan library and museum, writers

The Morgan Library & Museum hosted an exhibition called Beatrix Potter: The Picture Letters from November 2, 2012 to January 27, 2013. The aim was to show how Potter used her personal letters to develop the stories and artwork behind The Tale of Peter Rabbit and her other cast of animal characters.

And the best part: you can see the exhibition online.

Stephen King’s Gun Essay

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books, guardian, stephen king, writers, writing

Excellent article in the Guardian about Stephen King’s essay Guns, which he published exclusively for Kindle in January for 99 cents. A gun owner himself, King says gun owners should unite and ban automatic and semi-automatic weapons. The essay was a reaction to the December shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut.

I was extremely moved by this section of the article:

King recalls that the fictional schoolboy killer in his 1977 novel Rage, which was published under a pen name, Richard Bachman, resonated with several boys who subsequently rampaged at their own schools. One, Barry Loukaitis, shot dead a teacher and two students in Moses Lake, Washington in 1996, then quoted a line from the novel: “This sure beats algebra, doesn’t it?”

King said he did not apologise for writing Rage – “no, sir, no ma’am” – because it told the truth about high-school alienation and spoke to troubled adolescents who “were already broken”. However, he said, he ordered his publisher to withdraw the book because it had proved dangerous. He was not obliged to do so by law – it was protected by the first amendment – but it was the right thing to do. Gun advocates should do the same, he argued.

It’s no secret to those who know me that Mr. King is one of my heroes. I think he is a modern day Dickens. I read everything the man publishes. His book On Writing is the only handbook for good writing you will ever need. I have a copy of Rage (in a paperback edition called The Bachman Books, purchased in 1986). And I was struck when I was reading the above passage – he didn’t have to withdraw Rage, but he did so because it was “the right thing to do.” As writers we have a responsibility to ourselves to be true to our muse, even when it takes us to dark places. At the same time we have a responsibility to manage the effect our words might have in the world. And I think Mr. King demonstrated that beautifully.

Happy Belated Birthday Mr. Kerouac

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jack kerouac, words, writers

I should have posted this yesterday but…happy belated, Jack Kerouac.

 

Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors

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publishers weekly, writers

Review from Publishers Weekly, week of November 5, 2012

Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors

by Andrew Shaffer

In this rollicking romp through a gallery of writers whose genius came with a price (alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, and other troubles), Shaffer (Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love) offers a terrific blend of literary history, biography, and witty commentary. With a breezy style full of pithy asides, Shaffer profiles a wide range of writers including the Marquis de Sade, Samuel Coleridge, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Dorothy Parker, Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Wurtzel, and James Frey, exposing both the exuberant and the dark sides of their notorious lives. Shaffer may playfully acknowledge an early romanticized admiration for his rock star writers and their decadent lifestyles, but he does, emphatically, not the grim aspects of their lives (early death, debilitating depression, crippling drug and alcohol dependency, dysfunctional relationships). The protagonists may have been self-destructive, but their exploits are always wildly entertaining, and their output is all the more miraculous for what they survived. As Shaffer observes, that these writers achieved anything in their addled states is remarkable.