Just write in a big messy jumble without stopping or thinking.
It’s 5 pm, far from the morning (again!) even considering I woke up at noon. I feel like I would much rather be reading about writing than writing, which is an interesting twist. Considering reading the Artist’s Way book just to get fully convinced in the validity and importance of these exercises and see what other treasures the book might hold for me. I had it on my digital book shelf for years and now that I have a strong impulse to create yet am not fully following it, it might just be the catalyst I need.
I am quite enjoying writing, it is hard to describe, a certain power of self expression, clearing the mess in the head, in wide broad rough digital word strokes.
My curiosity feels very powerful and awake as ever. Just this morning I journeyed from photography ebooks to enneagram institute articles to Inner Gold book amazon reviews to sorting my goodreads and dropbox and syncing it to have all my precious reading material at hand. Should I let the curiosity flow like a river or attempt to put a structure around it to persist with each subject beyond surface meandering? I have noticed that it has been a while since I have finished reading a single book yet I have been reading and absorbing a wide variety of information. Digital sources make up the ever larger portion of it, and I spend the time to read amazon reviews before purchasing my kindle books as an exercise in “speed reading” – to filter out titles not worth spending the money and reading time on. Interestingly enough, most books purchased after even such a rigorous filtration process still collect digital dust as most of my former hard copies did. But I have committed to doing the speed reading exercises on the iPad’s Reading Trainer app and so far it has been the only speed reading method that I can actually feel the results of. I still read word for word whatever I get really engrossed in, but I am able to scan and absorb the general sense of the bulk of other material quickly and it feels good.
I have a backlog of posts and videos to publish form the week in Italy when I had barely any Internet but ample supply of inspiration to create. Wondering whether I should drip feed them a couple at a time until the backlog is cleared or just post it all in one go.
Did some Google research on “Life is an art”. At first glance there seems to be no one talking about it in terms of a philosophy so I am feeling quite enthused and wanting to dive in and start deconstructing, exploring and producing the myriad possibilities that stand behind a humble phrase of “life is an art form”. Live exhibits, galleries, classes of life as an art form swirl around my mind, now only to start producing it all…
It was a mighty fine stretch of 550 words non stop, my personal best, but then a peach caught my attention. Who can say no to a peach?
And I come to a screeching halt…
I want to read
My toes are cold
I want to make myself another pot of tea
iPad battery is running low
I ate way too much for lunch as usual
I am feeling quite relaxed
I have booked another workshop this morning, must have gone totally crazy. But it is going to be the most experiential hands on work I have done to date that will most certainly push me to the edge, so I am happy to do it as a wrap up to my short but intense European sojourn this year and then I can finally retreat and process to my heart’s content.
Am I a perfect example of having a ton of ideas and no follow through? Why is it quite hard to get started on anything?
I find it quite funny that for all the writing I do, I don’t really write anything at all about my personal life. That is sure to provide some morning pages fuel and I can safely lock it away behind a paid membership level to keep it private. Ahhh, now that feels nice…
PS Since I am publishing this post after it was originally written I feel compelled to add an interesting side note: I spent the first half of the day writing about reading and spent the rest of the day reading about writing (The Writer’s Toolkit book).