Inertia. A force I touched on yesterday as well. I must first get past what is holding me back from taking action. That could be any of a myriad of things, but usually it is laziness, or lack of focus. I need merely to take the action of typing and the inertia goes away. I need also to maintain the typing and let the words come and flow as often and as fast as they can and will.
It is like catching a wisp or a wish on a windy day. It is better to stay still and wait until one comes by you, then quickly dart out and snatch it. While I am waiting, I am still in the act of catching a wish. It doesn't look like I am going anywhere or doing anything, but I am ready to pounce at the first possible chance.I can't sit by and wait, I have to take action. So maybe it is more like fishing, because I dip the bait in the water and wait. While I am waiting it again seems like I am taking no action, but in reality, I am fishing. I am doing the act of fishing for fish. It doesn't seem like much, but it is a great deal.
That is what writing is like for me. I am sitting and typing and waiting for something to happen, and usually something does happen. Something pops up out of nowhere and continues to happen as I type along with the rhythm of whatever has just popped up. There is a period of waiting in which I am not necessarily typing anything beneficial or profound, but I am still in there doing the writing itself, doing what needs to be done, whether or not inspiration is shining on me or not.
It is called working. I am working at writing whenever I type, and the more I type, the better chance I have of catching a wisp a wish or even a fish. The more I type the better my chances of landing a big one are. I can't expect to catch anything if I don't put the bait into the water.
Now something else that triggers something else is the fact that I need to show up to the page at all. I have to get to the water's edge and prepare myself for writing. I have to show up with myself, get my tools in order (my mind and my fingers) and prepare to step into the water. There are so many mixed metaphors right now it is hard to keep them straight. But that is okay. I will extricate them in the next paragraph.
So far in the past two days I have likened writing to surfing, catching a wish, and fishing. Writing is all of those things. It is all of everything actually. Writing is a chance to reflect completely on what life is bringing me, what life is showing me, what I am experiencing, what I wish I were experiencing, and more.
Writing is life. Is that too much? Did I go too far? Yes. Writing is a piece of life, and merely a pale reflection of the grand possibilities and total reality of what life is. But writing is a form of communication that can be passed down through the generations, and spread among the people of the world and be understood by others in their own unique way, in the own unique lives.
In that regard, writing's reflection of life is vitally important, especially in this day and age, when almost everything is so fleeting and quickly past and obsolete. Writing remains important, at least important to me.
And so I will continue to write, and continue to share. But why do I want to share? Why do I want to share this portion of writing that really is not that profound or beneficial?
I want to share because art needs an audience, an idea I got from The View From the Studio Door by Ted Orland. I don't know whether my writing classifies as art, but it is a creation, so maybe it is art, in a rudimentary sense. Art needs an audience just like How to Kick needs a witness. Just like rosin needs the bow. Why does art need an audience? Because the viewer of the art is just as important to the work as the artist who produces it.
Today there are billions of viewers of art, and less creators of art. Are we running out of art? I don't think so. In fact, I think those silly memes that are created using block letters and a screen shot may classify as the new art. Taking two things and juxtaposing them so that there is something new can be a clever creation.
Do they count? I don't know.
I am getting lost again. But now I realize why that is, why I get lost. Because I am too far into my head, too far into the thinking that involves me reflecting on what I am writing and how it will be perceived by others.
The artist must keep the audience in mind, but the artist doesn't need to pander to the audience, give them what he or she thinks they want. Instead, go through the creation process and do the best you can. Create something you would want to see. Make something that nurtures your own creative spirit. Then present it to the world and see what happens.
Maybe nothing will happen. But then again, maybe something will happen.
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