Recently, I have made a serious effort to get back into writing. In college I would write lyrics, poetry, stories, and the regularly scheduled essay for class. When I moved into the 'real world' most of my work revolved around writing. Unfortunately the writing I did/do was/is so mind-numbingly boring that it killed that thing inside that made me *want* to write.
With my current schedule I have jumped back into writing. I really have no particular projects in mind but I am making sure to write at least 1000 words every weekday. So far, so good.
One of my main inspirations for writing is Sam Shepard's Motel Chronicles. If you've read this blog for any amount of time you will probably know that it is far and away the best piece of creative writing I know of. Anytime I travel I wish I had it with me if I have left it behind. If I bring it I read it all the way through, perhaps twice. I simply find it best for travelling.
Luckily Shepard's book inspires short writings that can be almost poetry in their simplicity.
Recently, however, I started reading Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. This is the first huge book in a ~2700 page trilogy. This work does not inspire my writing as of yet. First, tts not the type of thing I would want to do. Second, I simply don't understand how one writes such an enormous work. I would never be able to keep it organized. Its one thing to organize something like a history where there are thousands of references that help organize. It is something else to organize one's own creative story that stretches out as much as this one does. I just don't know.
Posted by dmason at December 1, 2004 08:00 PM