2006-02-26
A walk around the 'block'
Writers block� big time. If I had an internet connection at the moment, I�d probably be working. That�s how bad it is. But, I�ve got this weird idea that I�ve got to write (reader �s�, just to set the record straight� I�ll do the demanding here, thank you very much :p ).
One of my favorite authors of all times actually wrote more textbooks than anything. Like over 500 pieces of non-fiction? I guess that�s what you do when you have a PhD in Chemistry. But, while a biochemist by trade (he said that writing was not his job� just something he did), he was so, so prolific. In fact, he has published books in every major category of writing (based on the Dewey Decimal system) except philosophy. He wrote quite a few books on the act of writing and making a living at it, and said that a writer has to write, every day, even when they have nothing to say. It�s the act of putting thoughts into written words that exercises the part of the brain that allows one to actually write. His philosophy� the more you exercise it, the more it will develop. I wonder�
I�ve always been fascinated with writing, and reading other�s writings. I was very fortunate� I was reading before I entered 1st grade. Not much, mind you, but really reading. I could breeze through all the 1st grade readers (and no, they didn�t call them �primers�.. how old do you THINK I am, anyway???). But that feat that I was so proud of also got me into trouble once.
I attended a catholic school for 1st grade. I was sitting at the beginning of a row in the classroom (we sat alphabetically� even then, I was more a back-of-the-room kind of person!). We were doing the �See Jane run. See Dick catch Jane, grab her hair, and proceed to�� oh wait, that�s my current book� �See Jane run. See Spot run�. Anyway, without the grabbing of the hair (!), I was bored to death. And what sat right in front of me? A bookshelf full of reading books� 3rd grade reading books! So� being bored out of my mind, I took one� and started reading. Hey, this was cool!
I was fully engrossed� until I was caught. And punished! Can you believe? First, I was accused, in from of the whole class, of lying to the teacher. �What are you doing?�� reading. �Don�t lie to me� you can�t read those!� yes Sister, I can. �Then let me hear you� stand up and read!�. Well, I did� and looking back, I think I would have been better off just stand there mute, looking stupid.
Instead, I cheerfully (and quite proudly, I might add) started to read the book out loud. Big, big mistake. I didn�t see her face change from one of triumph (�got the little bastard�) to rage (�why the little bastard!�), but I�m sure it happened. When I did look up, she was red, red, red in the face� and furious! She had me march back to the corner where her desk was, and she handed me a ruler. Rut roh� I knew the drill.
We had to administer corporal punishment on ourselves, as the Sisters weren�t just a sadistic lot, but sadistic and twisted. When that was finally over (they gauged how long you had to do that by how red your skin became� my first Mentor! :p ), I then had to stand in front of my desk holding the �offending� books out at my sides, ala the scene in Tribes where Jan Michael Vincent has to hold up buckets of sand for hours. It wasn�t hours, but it was humiliating (that I decided wasn�t my style� so no mentoring received from that!).
Anyway� this little story has run way, way too long. Not even sure how / why this got started. Oh yeah� writing� practicing. By the way, the author who I referenced above is Isaac Asimov, better known to the general public as a science fiction writer. But he wrote a quite different sort of science fiction than most. He didn�t fill his stories with technology, but with people and their interactions� between themselves and with the future as he thought it might be. Quite a read� if you want suggested titles, just ask.
Writers block sure produces strange stuff.
t85225 at 1:11 p.m.
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