I'm feeling sad about the time change tonight. It will be dark when I GET to my office some days, and the horses will come in earlier now.
I'll adjust, but I expect to feel perpetually behind for a week or so, and I already feel like that enough of the time.
A good thing for the writing life, though, more hours in the evening, and I came upon this quote just now that seems appropriate:
"Stories are medicine ... they have such power; they do not require that we do, be, act anything -- we need only listen. The remedies for repair or reclamation of any lost psychic drive are contained in stories."
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.
I have an aspiration to sit by the woodstove on a series of cold winter nights and knit myself a poncho. This is complicated by the fact that I don't know how to knit. I'm not likely to tackle this complication in time for this season, but instead I'm going to think of myself knitting with words. A story that remedies.
Addendum: I was looking through some old writing this a.m., looking for a particular passage that I thought might fit into the work. Didn't find it, but did come upon this dream I had back in 2005:
a huge garden (writing) spider built a gigantic web over my bed - it was thick and wide, the shape of a book when lying open. woven into it was a cross (runic cross??) there was a beautiful hummingbird hovering behind the web, trying to get through, but the web was so thick ... and then it began to glow, gold and green.
My gosh - I have absolutely no memory of that. What a wonderful dream. This is why we should write them down - we forget, even the ones we don't think we will.
billie hinton’s camera-obscura:
life and lessons on November Hill Farm
2 comments:
Stories are medicine, indeed. I really needed to read that, so I'm so glad for this post. You are an inspiration to have written so much already for your NaNo project, Billie. That is a spectacular word count. I was uncomfortable with what showed up on my mind stage, so I was very slow to get off the ground, but I finally did. And it IS medicine. Always has been, but I haven't always known it. My word count is only 400 words, but the fact that I started and intend to continue at whatever pace I can is very encouraging. The word count is small, but the fact that I'm doing it is HUGE for me. I'm glad you're writing too, so I have some nice company. :-)
L
L, I'm glad you're not fretting about the word count. We all work differently and my word count reflects mostly the fact that I'm removing all my "editing" filters and letting raw material geyser forth. This is stuff that's been perking for a number of years, and I suspect the timing of this, and my decision to do it, was very connected to the fact that the pressure was building.
It's wonderful that you've got a good start and plan to continue. That's the point of NaNo, or at least MY version of it.
Keep me posted, but most importantly, keep creating the space for your story to grow. It sounds like it's taken hold!
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