I tried three weird tactics this week
Oh, hi friends!
I wanted to share some of the off-beat things I did this week for my creative process, in the hopes that you might want to do the same (and also not think I’m crazy).
I dug around.
Sometimes I forget what I’ve written a year or two or more ago. But after I went digging, I discovered an entire POEMS folder on my desktop. So I brushed some of them off…and submitted them to The New Yorker. (Yes, that New Yorker. Why not? They have an open submission policy! You can send in your fiction, too. And they actually read it.)
I gave up.
I stopped writing one short play and started writing another. The first one felt so labored — and not in the “just needs a little more effort” way. It wasn’t fun. Which was a problem, because it was a comedy. But the second one felt as natural as peeling an egg (that will make sense when you get to the end of this email).
I scribbled.
I committed my disaster handwriting to a tiny piece of paper. Sometimes Google Docs are too much. Too many fonts. Too much blank space. Too many click-click distractions. A tiny piece of paper makes you choose your words carefully.
Alright, these were some of my odd tactics! (Am I crazy?)
What can you try today, this weekend, or beyond?
“What I didn’t know—and what I want you to know—is that the joy is in the doing. The privilege is in working, in reaching people. Other things may arise or fall in your lap, but the overwhelming joy is the doing and the sharing. Open your eyes and your heart, and see what you’ve got. It is more than enough. I know that now.”
Tennessee Williams, Follies of God
(Thanks to Daniel Talbott for posting this on FB.)
Here’s a New Weird Thing I Love
Did I know I needed this egg peeler in my life? I did not. But now that I have one (thanks to my friend Nathan), I’m not sure how I ever lived without it!!!
You add a little bit of water to the thing, shake it, and the shell peels right off.
We live in the future.
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara