BbB 16-20

Okay, this is a very boring way for me to title my blogs; however, any other way of naming them has proven to be difficult for me to keep track of...yet another instance where creativity unfairly falls on the side and practicality reigns. Anyway.

I am apparently having a difficult time keeping up with my blogging, so now is the time for catch-up. I have, of course, already done my reading, so now I just have to look back over my highlighted sections. Here we go:

I think this whole "Short Assignments" chapter makes a lot of sense. I am more than just a little bit intimidated with the idea of calling myself a writer--or scarier yet, with actually starting projects. The results of these phobias are 1) lack of confidence and 2) lack of material. I really like Lamott's idea: "all I have to do is write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame" (17). Writing isn't supposed to be scary, right? It's supposed to be rewarding. And fun. I have to remember that when all I can think about is a blinking cursor and a due-date. One tiny picture frame. Is that what the real writers do? One step at a time. One word. One sentence. One thought. Lamott quotes some person, E. L. Doctorow (whom I should probably actually look up insteard of just writing "some person," but that's okay...) who says, "Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make it the whole trip that way" (18). I have read about other writers pretty much saying the same thing: that you're pretty much along for the ride; that you have to let your characters do what they want to do; that it's really hard to just sit down and plan the whole thing. I hope that's true. I really like that idea. It's so hard to feel confident, though, when all you've ever written was a few short "creative nonfiction" essays. A novel is the goal. Some award-winning jewel of a novel that will have both critics and the general populous screaming my praise. But I guess I have to aim smaller. For now I just have to try for those little things.