Tag: writing every day

Why Write?

Published on by mbcoudalLeave a comment

I write to make sense of the world. I write because I am on the hunt to find meaning.

I write because I worry and need to reassure myself.

I write to make lists and tell myself to do tasks.

Sometimes I wonder if a woman should write as much as I do. I wonder if someone took away my keyboard — Would they tell me to get out there and get living? For me, living is writing. And writing is living. Writing is as essential as breathing. As dreaming.

Our dreams are our brains telling us stories. We need stories. We — I — write through the night.

The other night, I had a dream that I was on my phone, texting or scrolling. Scrolling or texting. I woke, feeling like I’d been cheated — you should not be on the phone when you are dreaming or writing.

Although my one writing friend is working on / writing a novel on his phone. I don’t know how the project’s going. He was swallowed into his phone and no one’s seen him for months. Maybe he will come back in a dream. Or in my writing. Like now.

When I ask myself, Why write? It is so that I, Ishmael, do not become swallowed into the big belly of the beast.

I write to find my way out of the whale.

I write my way in and my way out.

I wrote this Why I Write on 750words.com I don’t write every day, but I like looking back at what I’ve written. I like checking the boxes.

No good reason to write

Published on by mbcoudal5 Comments

I hate when I get out of the habit of writing. I feel life’s pointless; I feel I will never catch the momentum of my creative life again.

It’s like the train is idling in the station and I have to run and catch it. This has happened a million times when I drove down from Lake Champlain to Albany-Rensselaer. I had to run to catch the train, back to the city, back to work.

Once I missed the train and I was so pissed. Couldn’t they have radioed down to tell the conductor, “Wait one minute!” I watched the train pull away.

I digress. I was writing about writing. And how hard it is to write.

I have been preoccupied with winding down from my day job; vacating up in the Adirondacks; teaching my first boot camp workshop; caring for kids, spouse, family; trying to get my freelance biz going; and now organizing the Adirondack Memoir Retreat (Oct. 25-28 – Please come).

The point of my life is to make stuff.

Yet all things conspire to get in my way when I sit down to to write. Everything and everyone. And they don’t even mean to. And besides, I tell myself there’s no good reason to write. No one’s asking me, “Can you please blog?” (But kids ask me, “Can you fix some dinner?”)

There’s no good reason to blog because it doesn’t make any money. And why do anything but make a buck? our capitalist society asks.

Yet our souls hunger for art. Our lives need to make things of beauty or else it’s all for nothing. It’s all spent grasping for the stupid gold ring on the merry-go-round. And you can never grasp it. You can never have enough. Money does not satisfy.

Art satisfies. Creativity gives back. Handmade dinners, crafts, and poems thank you. If they don’t, well, then you have something to write about then too. Write about the disappointment and the tragedy of all that lack of return on your investment.

Most of the time, you get the return, you catch the train. The conductor waits.

I have caught the train more times than I have missed it. I hopped on. I watched the cities roll by my window. I opened my laptop. I caught my breath from the run to the train and started writing.

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This picture has nothing to do with this post. But yesterday I went to the Staten Island Yankees game. On the free ferry, you pass Lady Liberty. You are free and at liberty to pursue your happiness.

Auditioning

Published on by mbcoudalLeave a comment

I had an audition the other night at Riley-Grier Studios. I felt like a real professional actor. I had to add my name to a list of dozens of names of people auditioning, but they were running right on time and took me within 10 minutes. They were friendly and curious to hear my writing.

I read a short piece on how my kid is growing up and that’s awful and also great. The show is for a Mother’s Day show called, “Listen To Your Mother.”

I think it went well. Two of the three women were smiling and laughing at my piece. Of course I wondered why the third one wasn’t. Should I not have worn pearls? (Oddly, I always wear pearls to the Parents In Action Meeting, which is where I’d been right before my 8:30 pm audition time. It’s a little uniform I have for parents’ nights.)

Auditioning threw me back to a time in my life where I went on a lot of auditions (and got not a lot of  roles). I felt those same feelings – pride and vulnerability, confidence and insecurity. And always this: I’m ambivalent about being judged.

I’m glad I did it. It was one of my New Year’s Resolutions – to make my work a little more public and to perform on a regular basis.

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Today was an extremely dreary day. The view from my office.

I don't have a head shot any more, but this is one of my Facebook profiles. No pearls.

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Jones Beach in the winter is so empty and peaceful and beautiful. This has nothing to do with my post.