Ask the Author: Gary Gach
Answered Questions (5)
Gary Gach
Read enough from your ancestors and peers to have a grounding, so you can grow from rootedness.
Revision so your Aunt Irma will understand it over the telephone, long-distance. (Variant: Imagine your work is a telegram, being charged for each word.)
Experts tend to repeat themselves. Stay a beginner.
There are no unpublished writers, only pre-published authors.
See if there are any communities you find nourishing, even non-writing ones.
My advice is based on choices and decisions unique to me. Don't listen to my advice — unless something resonates with your experience. There's where you'll find your innate, inner writing coach. (And when you can, pass along a little of your own seasoned wisdom, to the rest of us.)
Keep writing.
Thank you!
Revision so your Aunt Irma will understand it over the telephone, long-distance. (Variant: Imagine your work is a telegram, being charged for each word.)
Experts tend to repeat themselves. Stay a beginner.
There are no unpublished writers, only pre-published authors.
See if there are any communities you find nourishing, even non-writing ones.
My advice is based on choices and decisions unique to me. Don't listen to my advice — unless something resonates with your experience. There's where you'll find your innate, inner writing coach. (And when you can, pass along a little of your own seasoned wisdom, to the rest of us.)
Keep writing.
Thank you!
Gary Gach
2% inspiration.
98% perspiration.
So sometimes the question might be about how I am inspired to follow-through or re-write, rather than to write.
It's raining right now, so it's easier to write 'cos there's nowhere to go.
For inspiration, I need only pause, breathe, and listen to the music of the rain. Precious water.
In any event, I find that processing my experience through language can be an edifying as well as a pleasurable process, for me – and apparently others too.
I'll add I don't necessarily write to tell anyone what I know or feel. For me, writing's not self-expression, nor a brain-dump. It's more about writing to see what I think, & to discover what is the nature of care.
I'm often motivated nonintentionally. It's sort of similar to how a person doesn't say, "Now I'm going to write a haiku about impermanence," but, being vulnerable to life within & without – shazam! — the sound of a falling leaf makes a deep impression resulting in an expression matching the moment & the mood. Late autumn breeze ... the tips of the maple leaf scraping the concrete.
Remaining open / letting go – while also keeping in hand a certain critical discernment. For instance, I always ask my composition if / how it might make a difference in the world, even if razor-thin.
98% perspiration.
So sometimes the question might be about how I am inspired to follow-through or re-write, rather than to write.
It's raining right now, so it's easier to write 'cos there's nowhere to go.
For inspiration, I need only pause, breathe, and listen to the music of the rain. Precious water.
In any event, I find that processing my experience through language can be an edifying as well as a pleasurable process, for me – and apparently others too.
I'll add I don't necessarily write to tell anyone what I know or feel. For me, writing's not self-expression, nor a brain-dump. It's more about writing to see what I think, & to discover what is the nature of care.
I'm often motivated nonintentionally. It's sort of similar to how a person doesn't say, "Now I'm going to write a haiku about impermanence," but, being vulnerable to life within & without – shazam! — the sound of a falling leaf makes a deep impression resulting in an expression matching the moment & the mood. Late autumn breeze ... the tips of the maple leaf scraping the concrete.
Remaining open / letting go – while also keeping in hand a certain critical discernment. For instance, I always ask my composition if / how it might make a difference in the world, even if razor-thin.
Gary Gach
My most recent book was a case of being at a certain moment of time, in a particular place, and seeing a definite pattern forming, in which I might be able to make a positive difference in the world.
I've been practicing Buddhism since I was 11. At that time, there were more buddhas sitting behind glass cases than living buddhas sitting on cushions teaching people in the present moment. Over the years, I've been watching the development of Buddhism in the West. (What author Rick Fields called How the Swans Came to the Lake.)
Well, I'd also been following the trending branded series of How-2 books called "for Dummies" and "Complete Idiot's Guides." Having been so successful in computers and technologies (which make dummies of us all), they were branching out into other topics.
There came a point in time when bookshelves in stores no longer put books on Buddhism in with New Age, but started a separate category, Eastern Religion. And the Dummies / Complete Idiot's Guides began publishing titles in religion.
A beauty part was how these books are tightly organized, as is Buddhism.
So it seemed like a perfect wedding. Happily, that's proven so.
I've been practicing Buddhism since I was 11. At that time, there were more buddhas sitting behind glass cases than living buddhas sitting on cushions teaching people in the present moment. Over the years, I've been watching the development of Buddhism in the West. (What author Rick Fields called How the Swans Came to the Lake.)
Well, I'd also been following the trending branded series of How-2 books called "for Dummies" and "Complete Idiot's Guides." Having been so successful in computers and technologies (which make dummies of us all), they were branching out into other topics.
There came a point in time when bookshelves in stores no longer put books on Buddhism in with New Age, but started a separate category, Eastern Religion. And the Dummies / Complete Idiot's Guides began publishing titles in religion.
A beauty part was how these books are tightly organized, as is Buddhism.
So it seemed like a perfect wedding. Happily, that's proven so.
Gary Gach
I've just finished a new ms.
It's a mindfulness manual, with a difference:
meditation + ethics + wisdom ... as an integral path of awakening.
This is true for the traditional (Buddhist) practice of mindfulness; I'm only reinscribing this into the secularized format now called mindfulness.
The core, traditional teachings explored at great length are on the Full Awareness of Breathing; the sequel I'm working on now is based on the companion collection of teachings known as the Four Frames of Reference.
It's a mindfulness manual, with a difference:
meditation + ethics + wisdom ... as an integral path of awakening.
This is true for the traditional (Buddhist) practice of mindfulness; I'm only reinscribing this into the secularized format now called mindfulness.
The core, traditional teachings explored at great length are on the Full Awareness of Breathing; the sequel I'm working on now is based on the companion collection of teachings known as the Four Frames of Reference.
Gary Gach
I leave the desk, go for a walk.
I don't pathologize over it.
If I'm not writing, someone else is.
It all fits.
I don't pathologize over it.
If I'm not writing, someone else is.
It all fits.
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