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Clarion West Summer and The Will to Write.

Posted by John on June 1st, 2010 at 9:33 pm · 5 Comments

There are 13 weeks in June, July, and August, and I will spend six of those at Clarion West. Because the influence of the workshop will extend far beyond my time in Seattle, I wanted to start a Clarion West Journal of sorts.

I’ve tried to maintain Mind on Fire as an issues-oriented blog with a personal slant, but I hope you and xJane will forgive me if I essentially post three months worth of short diary entries. I fully expect this workshop experience to transform me both as a a writer and as a person. I’d like to document the process, FOR SCIENCE.

I started my day reading excerpts from Jeff Vandermeer’s Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer. I now have my mantra for this summer: “If you want to write, you’ll find the time, whether you have a day job or not. Time is not the issue: the will to write is the issue. [emphasis is the author's]”

The will to write is the issue.

On this, the first day of my Clarion West Summer, the Internet has drained me of The Will to Write. I researched; I chatted with people who care an awful lot about writing; I took notes and outlined and read about writing. But I wrote next to nothing.

I need to reboot. I’m going to bed now, but tomorrow, I plan to wake up instilled with the will to write.

And the determination to not go online until I’ve produced something worthwhile.

Tags: Clarion West · Writing

5 responses so far ↓

  • 1 eBrown // Jun 1, 2010 at 11:02 pm

    Thinking of you…and the possibility of filling a page.
    Writing every day for a while.
    Thinking about the right word and where to put it. Remembering Emily Dickinson.

  • 2 Wendy Wagner // Jun 2, 2010 at 10:16 am

    Thanks–I just put that book on hold at the library! I’ve been doing a good job with writing every day (admittedly, I don’t have a very strenuous day job), but it sounds like a great source of inspiration.

  • 3 Elissa // Jun 2, 2010 at 11:00 am

    My old mentor Ron Carlson lives by this: a writer is the person who stays in the room. I’ve personally updated this for our generation, so my mantra which writing is: a writer is the person who stays off the internet. Its all about not allowing distraction in, about ignoring that part of you that wants to get up and check the mail or water the plants instead of plowing through a paragraph.

  • 4 G // Jun 2, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    I find internet fasts are quite simulating myself.

    Internet is a fascinating tool for research, connection, sharing, etc… but I am always amazed and dismayed when I look up after a “quick email check” to see how much time (and feel how much energy) has suddenly evaporated.

    good luck! power too you! etc.

  • 5 xJane // Jun 2, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    How dare you use your blog for logging things! On the web!! /outrage

    Enjoy Clarion, I’m looking forward to your creative output (since it’s always so interesting—I think of this as concentrated John or distilled John), here and elsewhere.

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