Practice Series 2

I like the idea of writing as practice. I know other writers talk about practice, but I only glanced at their comments, so I have been allowed to come up with my own thoughts on it. I do know there is nothing wrong with trying to submit things to practice. Most of what you write, or more to the point, what I write is junk during these exercises. I would look at the piece when it was done and quote Alec Baldwin from Mamet's State and Main and said, "Well that happened." And then I would say "It's writing for writing's sake." You write because if you don't write your will never have the chance to be good, to be great, to learn from the crap you threw on the page.

I love the idea of set themes or parameters for writing, because it grounds me. Coming up with something from whole cloth is hard. When I do succeed I get a crazy rush, but when I just keep on looking at the page and scribble nothing or less than nothing, I get the blues for the day. "Look at Dave, he can't even finish a paragraph" Having the set grouping helps me more than it hurts. It focuses the session. But I try not to believe that this is anything but work, that these are finger exercises. Something to hone the skill, to have a good time.

Every time I have written a series that is longer than four stories, or poems, I have always had one piece that is good. One that I can get published and out there. Its funny that the good story is in different places of the series, some I get it the first or second, and some I look at this eighth piece and go, that's the one. (Now it is true that you are a terrible judge of your own work, but sometimes you can just tell it works).

I do try to send out the other practice ones, but I am just happy to put words out there. To see if I can progress. When I look at the broken ones, or the fractured ones, I will ask the question, "What the hell was I thinking with that one?" And that is a crass question and also an important one. You have to ask, what was I thinking. What made me go in a dull or uninteresting manner. Sometimes I don't have an answer. Sometimes I don't have the skills to correct it. Which means it is time to try the next one and hope that I get it better.