Continuously Published Since 2008 Jon Landau — Music Critic, Manager, Record Producer
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Letting the Dust Settle: Settling Down to Write
How does one approach the wide-open spaces, wherever they are, to settle down and write? To put this musing into practice, see the writing tip at the top of the list, and let us know how it goes.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Summer: You Have to Be a Happy Person
Put today's musing into action with the writing tip at the top of the list, and let us know how it goes.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Old Conductors Never Die: Writing in Motion
To put this musing into motion, check out the writing tip at the top of the list, and let us know how it goes.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Espresso Writing
On a bleak late afternoon in winter I went into Starbucks and ordered a single shot. I ensconced myself in a tall-backed chair at the window and buried my face the cup to inhale the concentrated, heady, hearty, earthy aroma. Though the cup was too large, its shape funneled the supercharged scent, not of coffee, but of Italy, of my aunt's home there, time spent after mealtimes arguing politics, and the way cappuccino smells on an early summer morning the Marche region, those wonderful wakeups to the sound of the sea in my cousin's condo along the Adriatic, the yearning to return to that volcanic place. Suddenly I looked up and saw a man sitting in his SUV staring at my rapt expression (my eyes were closed), probably thinking, lunatic. I didn’t care; I had just been transported, for the price of an espresso. But there was something more—in that shot of earthen yield was the impetus to imagine, per chance to dream, not of death but of life. Ay, there's the rub, as paraphrased from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
For a way to put today's musing into action, check out the writing tip at the top of the list.
As always, let us know how it goes.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
First Things
To flex your editing muscles and polish that all-important first chapter, check out today's tip. As always, let us know how it goes.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Write With Your Experience, Not About It
Check out today's tip, and let us know how it goes.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Cultivating the Capacity to Let Go
The concept of cultivation means work, like gardening. In this case, we writers cultivate our ability to let go of the direction we thought our story should take. It could be a minor deviation, or a complete detour, but the ability to let go takes work.
Initially, the change in direction can feel like impending chaos. If the story doesn't go the way I thought, then how should it go? For times of doubt, and to enable the work to speak to me, I go back to the six journalism questions, the five ws and an h of what, who, where, why, when and how. The arrangement of the questions varies, depending on what I need to address. I ask what I need to change, who (which characters) will be affected by the change, where in the story (in one place, or throughout) the change should occur, why the change seems important, when it should take place, and how I will bring it about.
For the best way to answer these questions, go to the first tip at the bottom of this blog. As always, let us know how it goes.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Fear of Freedom: The Bland Page, the Blank Page and Typos
Then, suddenly, in the face of all that freedom, such as, what should I write in this blog today, there is the serendipitous mistake, like typing "bland" instead of "blank." It's just a typo, right? Yes, but it's more than a typo, it's now a topic.
The blank page can be scary, but the solution is comparatively straightforward. Write something on it. I know that sounds simplistic, but believe me, I know what it's like to feel as if you're having to rearrange your brain to construct a coherent thought. Although I'm empathetic, the answer is, don't give into the temptation to not write. One reason is that there's something even more important to learn: how to deal with the bland page.
The reason bland is worse than blank is akin to Mark Twain's observation, "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt." When we write, we risk, and one of the biggest risks is not coming off well on the written page. Yet, the concern here is misplaced, and this is where personal distance is essential. It's not us on that page; it's our writing. I know it feels the same, and in a prior post I noted that writing is personal. Yet, the paradox is that writing must also be impersonal. In the end, it isn't us on that page. We're more than that, and, as dignified creatures, we need to get beyond fixing the blank page to fixing bland writing. How does one deal with and remedy this? Glad you asked—see the first item in the Tips and Prompts section at the bottom of this blog. And, by all means, let me know how it goes.