I’ve just been writing about NaNoWriMo for Writers Bloc, and the general excitement of more than 150,000 writers putting down 50,000 words each in a month is kind of getting to me.
So, today’s mix tape is a handful of songs about the act of writing.
Paperback wriiiiiterrrrr! Classic. The other day this song started playing over the shopping centre speakers the second I stepped into the centre. They knew I was there… Despite my never having written a paperback, per se.
It’s just the one line, but god it captures the feeling. “A white blank page, and a swelling rage” – I know this feeling. And Marcus Mumford in a book store! Who needs porn?
Yeahhhh, I know, a lot of people find her whiny. But I think she’s elfin and gorgeous. This one’s all about writing, and not being able to write, and thinking you’re able to write and then ending up with a heap of nonsense.
Ah, writer’s block. “Send that stuff on down to me” – please!
Today’s the first day of content for me as Online Editor of the fabulous Writers Bloc. My first post has gone up, and it includes an honest portrait of the disarray that is my writing desk. If you’ve ever wondered – wonder no more! A big thanks to the website’s founding editor and creator, Geoff Orton, for having faith in me and my work, and giving me this role. These are exciting times! And fear not, you’ll still be hearing from me here.
Also just a quick reminder that I’ve got a feature and a whole-page review in the latest edition of The Big Issue. It’s still available from your local vendor until this Thursday, so keep an eye out. The review is of Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest, a tome titled The Signature of All Things. I had fun with the extra word allowance, stretching my legs after the frustrating brevity of the usual TBI reviews.
The feature is about the advice that my dad, a chef, handed down to me that “What’s said in the kitchen stays in the kitchen”. As the article explains, it’s solid advice that is applicable far beyond the literal kitchen.
I’m back in town, and back in business. Tasmania was beautiful, the seafood and cheese were fantastic (Tassie must be sad for vegans), the landscape was lovely, and the time “away from it all” was particularly divine.
There’s a certain amount of post-holiday anti-climax that happens to everyone after being away – even on a small scale. This is why Mondays are so rough for Monday-Friday workers. Returning to a very full inbox and feeling pretty overwhelmed, I turned to Big Emotional Music for solace.
For a while, this made it worse. Album of choice was The Avett Brothers’ “Emotionalism”, and I’d just started formulating a new rule about Not Listening to Music About Feels When You’re Already Buried In Them, when a different song came on and helped. The Avett Brothers’ “Head Full of Doubt”.
While most of the song isn’t the most cheerful thing ever, one particular line jumped out at me.
Decide what to be, and go beit.
This is the key, in a number of ways. There’s that adage that you are what you repeatedly do – your actions define you. I try to decide, in every action, that I’m honest, compassionate, creative, curious. I try to show up to my work. The “Head Full of Doubt” lyric is urging you to make a link between what you’d like, and your actual life. I love this line because it doesn’t put up with that nonsense of, “I’ll be X one day” (I’ll be a writer when I graduate). Bullshit you will, go do it now.
It also occurred to me that writers are lucky in this sense. Other careers seem (at least to me) to involve deciding “what you’ll be”, and then not really having a lot of wiggle-room within that decision.
As writers, we get to decide what to be every time we sit down to write. The act of sitting down at your desk and writing speaks to that first thought about defining yourself through your actions, but I’m talking about something else. Every new piece of writing gives us another opportunity to “go be it”. I’m a fiction writer. I write poetry. I write memoir. I’m a songstress. I can be anything I want, because my job involves creating something from nothing. Being creative is an umbrella, and we get specific every time we practice.
This blog will be quiet for a week or so – I’m going on holiday! My partner and I have forgotten what each other looks like, and as we’re about to get even busier soon, we’re taking some time off to head to Tasmania. We’ll be visiting MONA, and eating lots of seafood, and taking a road trip up to the top end. He hasn’t flown before, and I haven’t been to Tassie since I was a kid – we’re excited.
I’m also updating you with my happy news – which you probably have already seen if you know me personally, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter.
I’m joining the team at The Writers Bloc! It’s a website designed to help writers share their work. At the blog, founding editor Geoff Orton has done a great job of sharing reviews, interviews, and bizarre stories about what writers do for a living. I’m looking forward to continuing his good work, and expanding on it, in my new role as Online Editor.
The Writers Bloc will be bringing you regular content from 21st October onwards. In the meantime – oysters! Breakfasts! Artwork! Excuse me, I’ve a holiday to get to.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
“Wallace held so fast to his sparse emotional certainties that when they proved unstable, the impact was crushing. Then unleashed feelings of hurt and confusion would go round and round, bending in on themselves, mixing with guilt, until his brain reached a point of exhaustion.”
– from Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace, by D.T. Max, p51.
In today’s edition of the ‘Amusements and Distractions’ weekly round-up on the Killings blog, Jessica Alice included a link to the news that Jennifer Lawrence is likely to play Agnes Magnusdottir in the film adaptation of Hannah Kent’s absolutely brilliant Burial Rites.
Burial Rites is easily the best book I’ve read this year, and in a long while. I’ve ranted about my love for it before. I’m pretty keen on Jennifer Lawrence, too – with the exception of the ridiculous Silver Linings Playbook. She danced like a cutie though.
Anywho, I can see her in the role, and I’m fairly stoked to hear Burial Rites will be turned into a film. It’s happy news, and it needed sharing.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
“The neighbour drove up again in the afternoon, followed by a boy with an elderly man perched on the back of his motorbike. Susan from Australia was showing her grand-aunts pictures from Sydney: a low white house behind narrow leathery trees, Susan from Australia hugging a hairy dog, a concert stadium blooming from a harbour – her hands shook as she picked up each one.” – from Laura Jean McKay’s Holiday In Cambodia, p 121.
Mix Tape Monday is a new series of posts – I’m going to share with you… wait for it… a mix tape each Monday!
Some songs sound nice. Some have nice words. The songs that I like the best have great music, and tell great stories.
Here are a few of my favourites.
The Decemberists – The Mariner’s Revenge
These guys do story-songs really well, but this one is my favourites. A boy’s mother, on her death bed, tells him about his scoundrel father who took off on them. The son goes around the world, on ships, through churches, into a whale, tracking down the man who hurt his mother so badly. I love it. All eight-almost-nine minutes of it.
And Colin Meloy’s a dream boat. And if you’ve got kids, look into Wildwood – he tells stories for children just as epic and fantastical as his songs.
Colin Meloy – Crane Wife pt 1, 2, and 3 While we’re talking about Colin Meloy, let’s talk about Crane Wife. It’s based on an ancient Japanese story. The song’s written in character, the sad story of the man who discovers, loves, and loses his crane wife. Colin Meloy brings this story to aching life (“All I ever meant to do was to keep you, my crane wife” …*sob!*)
Regina Spektor – Samson It’s hard to tell whether Regina Spektor’s telling the actual story of Samson and Delilah in this song, or if she’s using it as a metaphor for something else. I interpret it to be a telling of Samson and Delilah which suggests that Samson was Delilah’s downfall too, and that Delilah was devastated when she betrayed him.
In the song, Samson kisses and comforts Delilah despite her betrayal, and she mourns that “We couldn’t bring the columns down / We couldn’t destroy a single one” after Samson loses his strength. Spektor here tells an alternative, untold story.
Nick Cave – Stagger Lee Again based on a traditional story, Stagger Lee is a murder ballad, which is something Nick Cave does ridiculously well. So well that he released a whole album of them. I’m not sure if I love the murder story or the ridiculous film clip more. The gyrating! The go-go dancers! Shit. It looks like the best party I ever missed.
Bright Eyes – Bowl of Oranges A sad man takes a trip out into the world, and he starts to feel better because he meets some lovely people. Such a lovely song.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
“Sweet mercy, but Prudence could be relentless. Had she been a man, she would have made a formidable lawyer.”
– from The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert (p152).
Sam van Zweden 