Last Updated On May 3, 2017
To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult. -Isaac Asimov
Another great meet-up! It was an interesting mix of energies for me. I had just finalized and launched a piece that morning and my pupils were still dilated from it. I also have a lot of writerly stuff approaching that is really pushing my comfort level, so I could feel it manifesting in group. My manner, my voice, everything. I’m not feeling regretful, I’m feeling so very THANKFUL for this group. I love having a place I can bring it, be with it, and sort it out amongst friends and fellow writers who understand. What a gift.
Even the theme turns out to be perfect- pulling us out and away from the seemingly endless “community corner” of events and possibilities and commitments. Just talking about animals- our own relationships, their symbology and use in literature, reading my childhood favorite “The Owl and The Pussycat” was so therapeutic. I loved hearing the kinds of animals that made their appearances- chickens, frogs, deer, horses, and cats. And the themes explored- loss, curiosity, perspective, procreation, flight…All good stuff, in stories, in literature, and in life.
Our meeting hit a deep and resonant note as we delved into what “writer identity” means to us. What criteria do we need fulfill to call ourselves writers? Do we introduce ourselves as such? How do we fill in forms when asked for occupation? What social conditioning has made all this so problematic? We are all over the map with it- its sociological and emotional and everything in between. I always want to neatly iron these things, be as simplistic as possible, “if you write, you are a writer”. But I know its murkier than this. I’m thankful for Pamela offering this quote from Isaac Asimov’s Murder at the ABA:
“…an editor can be fired, I eventually learned. And when he is fired, he is no longer an editor, merely an item in the statistics of the unemployed. Not so a writer. He cannot be fired. He might be rejected, he might fail, he might starve, he might be forced to keep body and soul together by taking some menial (i.e. non-writing) employment, he might be ignored by the critics or denounced by the public- but he was a writer, a failed writer, an unsuccessful writer, a starving writer, a WRITER. No editor could change that fact.”
So basically what Asimov is saying is that we are enslaved to our compulsion to write. Stop trying to get out of being a writer! Love it, hate it, do whatever you gotta do. Then go to another writer’s block meet-up and refresh, be a writer and forget to question it. Accept it like your humanity. Ok, so maybe Asimov wasn’t exactly saying all that…
Next meeting FRIDAY MAY 5, 10:30AM-12:30PM AT SACRED ROOT KAVA BAR.
The theme is: WRITING WITH IMAGE
Last Updated On May 3, 2017
To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult. -Isaac Asimov
Another great meet-up! It was an interesting mix of energies for me. I had just finalized and launched a piece that morning and my pupils were still dilated from it. I also have a lot of writerly stuff approaching that is really pushing my comfort level, so I could feel it manifesting in group. My manner, my voice, everything. I’m not feeling regretful, I’m feeling so very THANKFUL for this group. I love having a place I can bring it, be with it, and sort it out amongst friends and fellow writers who understand. What a gift.
Even the theme turns out to be perfect- pulling us out and away from the seemingly endless “community corner” of events and possibilities and commitments. Just talking about animals- our own relationships, their symbology and use in literature, reading my childhood favorite “The Owl and The Pussycat” was so therapeutic. I loved hearing the kinds of animals that made their appearances- chickens, frogs, deer, horses, and cats. And the themes explored- loss, curiosity, perspective, procreation, flight…All good stuff, in stories, in literature, and in life.
Our meeting hit a deep and resonant note as we delved into what “writer identity” means to us. What criteria do we need fulfill to call ourselves writers? Do we introduce ourselves as such? How do we fill in forms when asked for occupation? What social conditioning has made all this so problematic? We are all over the map with it- its sociological and emotional and everything in between. I always want to neatly iron these things, be as simplistic as possible, “if you write, you are a writer”. But I know its murkier than this. I’m thankful for Pamela offering this quote from Isaac Asimov’s Murder at the ABA:
“…an editor can be fired, I eventually learned. And when he is fired, he is no longer an editor, merely an item in the statistics of the unemployed. Not so a writer. He cannot be fired. He might be rejected, he might fail, he might starve, he might be forced to keep body and soul together by taking some menial (i.e. non-writing) employment, he might be ignored by the critics or denounced by the public- but he was a writer, a failed writer, an unsuccessful writer, a starving writer, a WRITER. No editor could change that fact.”
So basically what Asimov is saying is that we are enslaved to our compulsion to write. Stop trying to get out of being a writer! Love it, hate it, do whatever you gotta do. Then go to another writer’s block meet-up and refresh, be a writer and forget to question it. Accept it like your humanity. Ok, so maybe Asimov wasn’t exactly saying all that…
Next meeting FRIDAY MAY 5, 10:30AM-12:30PM AT SACRED ROOT KAVA BAR.
The theme is: WRITING WITH IMAGE
Last Updated On May 3, 2017
To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult. -Isaac Asimov
Another great meet-up! It was an interesting mix of energies for me. I had just finalized and launched a piece that morning and my pupils were still dilated from it. I also have a lot of writerly stuff approaching that is really pushing my comfort level, so I could feel it manifesting in group. My manner, my voice, everything. I’m not feeling regretful, I’m feeling so very THANKFUL for this group. I love having a place I can bring it, be with it, and sort it out amongst friends and fellow writers who understand. What a gift.
Even the theme turns out to be perfect- pulling us out and away from the seemingly endless “community corner” of events and possibilities and commitments. Just talking about animals- our own relationships, their symbology and use in literature, reading my childhood favorite “The Owl and The Pussycat” was so therapeutic. I loved hearing the kinds of animals that made their appearances- chickens, frogs, deer, horses, and cats. And the themes explored- loss, curiosity, perspective, procreation, flight…All good stuff, in stories, in literature, and in life.
Our meeting hit a deep and resonant note as we delved into what “writer identity” means to us. What criteria do we need fulfill to call ourselves writers? Do we introduce ourselves as such? How do we fill in forms when asked for occupation? What social conditioning has made all this so problematic? We are all over the map with it- its sociological and emotional and everything in between. I always want to neatly iron these things, be as simplistic as possible, “if you write, you are a writer”. But I know its murkier than this. I’m thankful for Pamela offering this quote from Isaac Asimov’s Murder at the ABA:
“…an editor can be fired, I eventually learned. And when he is fired, he is no longer an editor, merely an item in the statistics of the unemployed. Not so a writer. He cannot be fired. He might be rejected, he might fail, he might starve, he might be forced to keep body and soul together by taking some menial (i.e. non-writing) employment, he might be ignored by the critics or denounced by the public- but he was a writer, a failed writer, an unsuccessful writer, a starving writer, a WRITER. No editor could change that fact.”
So basically what Asimov is saying is that we are enslaved to our compulsion to write. Stop trying to get out of being a writer! Love it, hate it, do whatever you gotta do. Then go to another writer’s block meet-up and refresh, be a writer and forget to question it. Accept it like your humanity. Ok, so maybe Asimov wasn’t exactly saying all that…
Next meeting FRIDAY MAY 5, 10:30AM-12:30PM AT SACRED ROOT KAVA BAR.
The theme is: WRITING WITH IMAGE