Why Be an Essayist

Here's the beginning of Wendell Barry's poem "VII," which I think is really lovely. The poem appeared in The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor January 7 (and was pointed out to me by my lovely colleague Cheryl):

VII

by Wendell Berry

I would not have been a poet
except that I have been in love
alive in this mortal world,
or an essayist except that I
have been bewildered and afraid,
or a storyteller had I not heard
stories passing to me through the air,
or a writer at all except
I have been wakeful at night
and words have come to me
out of their deep caves
needing to be remembered.



category: quotations

Fighting Off Writing Demons

Maryn McKenna on the WriterL e-mail list (subscription-only) suggests a book for keeping you from going crazy while you're writing: The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield (his site has excerpts and reviews). She says she usually reads one of the many one- or two-page chapters each day. She applauds it for "dispelling--or at least helping you to name and identify--your own internal resistance."

Anyone read it & have any thoughts? Or have another book to recommend for dealing with writing (as opposed to the joy of having written)?

I'm gonna click over to my library's catalog now to see if I can find a copy of The War of Art.

category: resources

Got Writing Resolutions?

Having the beginning of the year in the middle of winter is a stupid idea, at least for those of us stuck in climes with cold and gray weather at this time of year. A new resolution would take hold better in spring, when the environment is energetically sprouting new (and colorful and interesting) stuff too.

Putting on the optimist's viewpoint momentarily, however, if we start digging ourselves a new habit now, by spring we'll be seeing the results right along with Earth's celebrations in the northern hemisphere, at least.

My writing ambitions for 2009:

• Produce a narrative nonfiction project every quarter.
• Revise a piece every quarter.
• Submit a piece every quarter to a literary journal.
• Submit six queries for narratives to magazine editors.
• Analyze 12 narratives published by others.
  
• Write a book proposal and submit it to at least one agent.

To accomplish goals, you have to break them down into specific actions. For example:
Task: Revising my work and analyzing that of others. (At the beginning of each week I'll pick which pieces to work on.)
Time: 3 to 4: 30 p.m., when my daughter does her homework.
Place: Kitchen island (to keep an eye on my daughter, who does her homework at the dining room table).
Reward: An hour of guilt-free reading in my favorite chair.

I tell you honestly: it is hard to be an ambition person who is lazy.

What are you planning for your writing this year?

Craft Essays on Brevity

How recently have you checked out the nitty-gritty writing craft advice by writers who know what they're talking about on Brevity, an online publication featuring CNF of 750 or fewer words? [Possibly the world's longest question, there.] What are you waiting for?

See Writers Weschler and Birnbaum in Boston

Artdaily.com lists a cozy conversation between New Yorker writer Lawrence Weschler and writer Robert Birnbaum. Takes place Wednesday, January 28 at 6:30 p.m., in the intimate setting of the ICA’s Water Café. Put on by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Tickets: $8 general admission; $5 members, students, and seniors; (617) 478-3103 . Café menu available during the event.

They won't be chatting about CNF, per se, however. They'll be discussing two books (Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Expanded Edition, Over Thirty Years of Conversations with Robert Irwin [Has anyone seen a longer title on a book??] and True to Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney) that present opposing accounts of the history of modern art and the significance of the artists’ work within that context.

Lawrence Weschler, a New Yorker staff writer for more than 20 years, is the author of a dozen books of creative nonfiction, including the 2006 collection of essays Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. Robert Birnbaum is editor-at-large of the literary cultural Web site www.identitytheory.com, where he has interviewed many authors, including Sebastian Junger.

Weschler will sign books immediately after the talk.