To Reach The Green Light At The End Of The Pier
FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES: "We are saving ourselves through the words," says Eleanor, the leading lady of a novel-in-progress. This exploration into the creative process -- which includes plenty of distractions/tangents /thoughts & rants by Eleanor, her Biographer, and selected guest artists -- will continue until Eleanor is certain her story is "right." (But we dare not jump ahead of ourselves.)
There will be the occasional typo (as Eleanor points out), and much of this is intended to be "original draft" -- what comes out of our mouths (heads) first, and then set down in that order. Not all of it will be included in the novel, but all of it is happening in real time.
The Postings:
"The Little Room" -- Reconfiguration
Eleanor says: My Biographer and I are reconfiguring The Little Room, to ensure that the feng shui energy we need for the words is in the absolute, ideal alignment. We are also cleansing the room, and getting rid of anything that might distract us from the goal -- which continues to be the conclusion to my story, Volume One.
It's that perfect time of Winter, when the clouds open just a little bit wider and allow us to see everything with more -- well -- clarity. This is our window, our precious time, and as we are now more than 460 postings toward No. 500, we need to make each of them count. Please stay tuned, please, won't you? -- and meanwhile, you're welcome to scroll down, at your leisure. These 460-plus postings are all on one long page, remember. And my Biographer would say this, so I am going to say it as well: "To the words!"
ELEANOR says: "Please turn the page. Keep reading."
For more of Eleanor and her Biographer -- as well as the work of our many guest artists -- check out the older postings. "Everything is part of the process, and the process is the journey," Eleanor says.
15 comments:
I'm still here, Eleanor... sitting at your and Geoff's feet... anxiously awaiting your next words!
Sometimes I think you and Eleanor are having too much fun together. Looking forward to the wisdom you guys concoct next. A tidy room tends to tidy the mind.
If you want to make the legend complete, Geoff, you would vanish after the next 40 posts. Do an Ambrose Bierce. Ride into Mexico on a donkey never to be seen again. Or change your name to B. Traven and really fuck with the literary collective. There are ways to take this to the next logical level of performance art.
but then, Rodger, that would just become more of a "gimmick" don't you agree?
always found it interesting how writers kept their rooms. i remember seeing a photo of toni morrison's writing space in toledo; it was a small, wooden shed with a wooden table looking through a window. there was nothing else there.
i have a writer friend who has the 'perfect writer room' decorated with photos of the heavyweights, old underwoods, etc. etc.
my "room" tends to be convoluted and messy and loud sometimes---downright chaotic. i've written under duress and under time constraints most of my life. my "room" is basically a laptop, a moleskine, and a backpack to keep it all in. out of chaos comes some sort of moulded piece. voices and characters are always at war. i don't sleep well. nothing is calm and serene.
i thought this would be like this only throughout my 20s, but it's bled through and now here i am, almost 40, and nothing has settled down. bile mixes in with blood and love and hate and ghosts and...jesus, sounds like Hell, doesn't it?
maybe it is.
Robyn -- thank you -- you've been a wonderful supporter of Eleanor and this page almost since the beginning. (You should get some kind of award for that!)
Ingrid -- Eleanor and I do have fun -- whether it's too much, difficult to tell. As long as the words come, fun is a good thing.
Rodger -- I've given lots of thought about what to do after Post No. 500. And I'm still giving thought to it. When I get to No. 500, I'll know what's "right."
Alex -- Perhaps if your writing room/area was calm and serene, you'd never get any work done. As it is now, you're writing such amazing material, I'm thinking that the chaos is good for your creative mind.
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As far as the perfect writing room -- we're all different of course.
For me, "The Little Room" does need to be organized, and I have creative inspiration everywhere I look. There are paintings/prints from artist friends on the walls. I have pieces of my childhood in full view. I have music, if I need it. Incense, to change the air if need be. And as I write the creative stuff mostly in the dark of night, I have all kinds of indirect and colored lighting, which makes it feel like a Tom Waits-ish kind of world in here (closest description I can come up with).
I write on a laptop for portability, and never at a desk, but rather on a lawn chair converted to a writing chair (resembles a day bed actually), with plenty of blankets for cushion. I can stretch out my legs ... be totally comfortable. Clear my head. Take a nap or meditate if need be.
I try to make sure it's all here (books of course, as well), so if I need anything at all, it's within an arm's reach. If it's not here, I don't need it. And this seems to work, in all of the "Little Rooms" I've created in the different cities I've lived in. This is my cave, and nobody (human at least) comes into my cave, which is nice. I get my solitude or solitary confinement sometimes, but I never feel alone, either.
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Good creative energy to everyone, and I'll have some new words this week, at some point, and then it's off to the races, for the stretch run.
-- Geoff (with Eleanor always close by, looking on)
Thanks for the good words and support, as always. I do think if my "room" was serene, I wouldn't be able to work. I think, as much as I'd have loved to have had enough space and time, for some reason, that wouldn't have worked for me. I always wanted to have a hideway or a getaway, but it's never worked out. And so it goes...the work is done among the madness of everything else. There's a book out there of photos of writers' homes--it's where I saw Morrison's workspace that I mentioned. Very cool and interesting stuff to see where the "greats" have written /are writing.
Oh "E" I have never been one for extreme cleaniness - a clean and organized mind and room leads to all things uninterestly. A little mess here and a little mess there makes room for coffee stains and popcorn droppings - and that is my
comfort zone.
Geoff - only organize what is necessary --- lest you fall off the edge and land in the world of minimalism.
Dear barbara,
I certainly would not describe "The Little Room" as a model for cleanliness. Rather, it would seem to an outsider at first glance very "cluttered." But that said, every object or image has meaning to me, and therefore the chance to inspire. Coffee stains, popcorn droppings -- these are indeed allowed.
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(Eleanor wants to jump in here.)
E says she'll never be a minimalist -- and she loves your line about that, just loves it.
"I have too much to say!" she says.
I believe her. I have to believe her. We're kindred, We're the same, as much as we are the yin and yang of my creative mind. And in the most magical of ways, that works.
I have this one marital aid of which I am so fond, I'd love to keep in on the desk next to me as I write, but I'd never get anything done. It's just too distracting.
It would be so fun if they had clothes for it--like Barbie clothes. I could dress it up in a beach outfit, formalwear. Hats would be good too.
Hello.
Can you understand the problem I have being me? You make a comment about writing spaces and that's where I end up.
Strange. Very very strange.
luvluvluv to you and Eleanor!
Erin, I don't see any problem -- none whatsoever with "you being you." Nope. Your needs complement one another.
That said, I wonder if you could indeed make alterations on some Barbie clothes to fit your "friend."
-- Geoff (& Eleanor, who suddenly insists she's an expert on these things -- I really shouldn't repeat what she's saying)
(Eleanor, a little quieter please?)
Okay.
What an odd dovetailing. I stumble over here this morning and read Erin's humorous digression and then within the hour I received my annual phone call from California Exotic Novelties. Seems like it's time for me to saddle up and ride into the world of industrial films for adult toy manufacturers once more. I've been writing these projects once a year for them for about five years now, promo pieces that air in adult novelty shops. It's the only connection I have to the adult entertainment industry anymore but I continue doing it because (a) well, it's only once a year and (b) it's lucrative, baby (but very limiting and challenging for a writer ... you can only say so much about Rabbit vibrators and vibrating c**k rings with enhanced silicone nubs for her pleasure).
"Perhaps all pleasure is only relief."
-- William S. Burroughs (his birthday is today, Feb. 5)
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Rodger -- I know you'll find some good new descriptors for those "pleasure" toys.
We are writers, and we need to write, and whatever pays the bills so that we can write more, well, it's for a worthy cause.
To creativity, and ... to the words.
A note to all reading these comments, and waiting for the next posting -- Eleanor and I will be out of town for the next few days, but we'll have our Moleskines with us, taking notes all the while.
When we write the first posting for February, we plan to follow it with manic activity, and plenty of manic writing.
The volcano is about to blow, and with it will come the words. Stay tuned. And, thanks for reading!
-- Geoff & Eleanor
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