September Michaud > Recent Status Updates

I made a St. Patty's day display yesterday and decided I needed to take this home and read it.

I like the way this writer creates analogies between yarn and general life situations. She uses simple language along with language that is specific to the craft of knitting. I do not knit (just crochet) so there are some of analogies that I don't quite understand. The language hasn't carried over (between knitting and crochet) as much as I would expect, but I can relate to her love of yarns!

On Southern writers: "There is something extravagant and wild about what they have to say--snakes on the roof of a car, swamps, a delta, sweat, the smell of sea, buzz of air conditioner, Coca-Cola--something fertile, with a hidden danger or shame, thick like the humidity, unspoken yet ever-present...I'm just writing what I know, they think. But what they know has a built-in richness and heritage."

"As a writer you should go to a book thirsty and suck it dry."

"Learn to get close--'every eyelash, the pink flesh on the edge of my eyelid, the red network of vessels...' and stay in there and hold steady."

"I have been astonished by how few people--people who supposedly want to write--read books, and if they read them, how little they examine them. It's as though they popped one enjoyable, smooth, round gumdrop after another into their mouths and swallowed, never feeling the texture or flavor on their tongue."

"the best stories are the ones where all the elements are not separated, but woven together-the character, the place and so on. Then plot is more than just an action that happens. The action reveals character, it's anchored in a setting, it reverberates in memory.

Enjoying this a little more now. I particularly like that Gilbert advises readers to use caution when deciding to pursue higher education in the arts. She explains how making a living on one's art is difficult and just not necessarily the thing to do for a lot of/most people. She reminds readers that they can continue to cultivate their craft (and possibly make it into a type of career) without getting into debt.

I should've known by the title "Big Magic" that this was going to treat creativity as a mystical being. And I completely disagree with that concept. You get creative by doing, failing, and trying again. Knowledge + experimentation + curiosity + discipline to do the work = creativity. Nothing "mystical" about that.

I am listening to the audio version of this, but it feels REALLY cheesy. So far, it's said that ideas are like living beings and you can choose to entertain them OR you can let them go, BUT if you do let them go you you must do so respectfully. Ew, no. My ideas are mine. Created from what I feed my brain. Not magical fairies looking for a shoulder to land on or a human to grace. Ugh.

enjoying this so far. Pretty trippy carnival. The writing is a little too flowery for my taste, but must keep in mind that this is 1960s prose.