Showing my work

Been doing a lot of reading lately. Lots of different things in an effort to hunt down both creativity and inspiration. Personally, I believe that both of those things are always around and in far greater abundance than I think about most of the time. It's up to me to look for it and notice it. Sometimes it's right under my nose, other times I need to look further out for it.

The reading came at the suggestion of a friend and also from my former writing instructor. One of the things I've been reading is a book that talks about the virtues of showing your work. I guess I've always thought that would be contrary to the artistic process - my father always said I shouldn't show something until I finished it. In the Talking Heads song, Artists Only, David Byrne sang a line: You can't see it - until it's finished.

In school, there were always questions on tests that instructed us to show our work. I get it - they wanted to see how I arrived at my answers. But if I put the showing my work theory alongside my writing, the whole notion of not seeing it until it's finished makes perfect sense. Who wants to see a "shitty first draft"? (Thank you Anne Lamott)

Some of the other things I'm reading echo my own intentions for why this blog was even created in the first place. I'll say it again, to get me writing and keep me writing. I've had a few very critical questions thrown my way for this blog even existing - and that's fine, my skin is thick enough now that I don't give a flying f*** if anyone likes it or thinks I should be doing anything other than what I am doing with it. Readers? I've got readers. I'll be the first to scratch my head about my audience - and the places my blog is read from. But dig it, they're out there.

In a sense, this blog shows my work - shitty drafts? They're here - and some of 'em are even posted. Some of 'em I take down, and for every post that appears here, there are a dozen or more that have yet to be posted, finished or scrapped entirely. I'll admit that sometimes I click the publish button right after I hit the spell check. It's very rare that I get to either of those buttons without reading things out loud. It's also rare that I share things with my friends who write - but that's due to this hang up I have about hearing people talk more about their art/work than actually doing it. I once witnessed two people sitting at the bar in front of me, laptops right beside their drinks, launch into this huge discussion of what they were working on and why they liked it - and I wish I'd had the entire thing recorded, video and audio, because it really was like a real life Portlandia sketch. It was hilarious and kind of hard to believe this was real life.

My point is that writing is the kind of art where the finished product holds more appeal than the process. There aren't any new words here - and I suppose one of the reasons I've always loved to write, is the notion of arranging words to say something in a different way. I have a friend who calls it "dances with words."  I can watch a painter or a sculptor work, watch musicians practice...but writing isn't something where the process is terribly interesting - at least not in my opinion. To go back to the whole idea of showing my work, well, there are things I'm working on - characters, story lines....for what, I'm not exactly sure. Some of the characters are very loosely based on people I've come across - very loosely based mind you.

One such example is a vegan extremist - a tragic woman with two things constantly working against her:  a strong opinion and a narrow mind. Very strong and very narrow. So much so that the actions of this individual are often hilarious - though not intentionally. Finding this character came from two real life individuals, and one cartoon character. Toss in a lot of common human traits that point to no one person in particular more than any other person, and voila, a character is born. Born out of taking little real life things and exaggerating them to extremes - which sometimes aren't too far off actual statements and events. What will come of things like this? Damned if I know, but for those of you either encouraging the showing of work, and reading this, here you go - this, to me, is showing my work, at least as much as I'm cool with doing.

My skin is thick enough, but I gotta admit that I don't suffer critics well at all. Screw critics, what we need more of in this world, are encouragers. My mantra has become one of not putting anyone or anything down - and my reasoning is simple: Why would I want to spend any time talking about what I don't like, when there is so much that I do like - and that is what I feel is worthy of attention. Stay tuned, good people, I'll show more work. Peace