Lit again!
Friday was the first of the Smoking Pen’s Sessions, The writing practice part of Living the Magic(LTM).
Many years ago i was part of an informal writing practice group. My late friend, Judy Wyman who was in it too, dubbed us The Smoking Pen’s. i decided to revive it as part of the LTM and so named, to honor her.
We often used Natalie Goldberg’s book Wild Mind. Her rules, to keep your hand moving, no stopping to think, (AKA automatic writing) made it seem as though we were writing quickly. So fast that our pens were actually smoking!
Each time we met we would choose a prompt from her book, write & then read what we wrote, no editing. It was often surprising and fun. & It was the genesis of my writing that i now refer to as stream writing.
In our first session Friday, we began with a prompt that i had found provocative while i was taking Seth Godin’s The Creative Workshop, so i borrowed it. My stream write below starts with it.
Thus i also thought it would be fun to use a drawing for this post (above) that includes his book The Practice: Shipping Creative Work.
When it was published, shortly after the first Creative Workshop, i included it in several of the interior line drawings i did. This one i’ve just started adding color too is without the book jacket.
& A few Pub drawings below of Lobo and Nick.
Thanks for reading! Here’s the stream write in answer to the question:
What is idiosyncratic about you?
i talk with my hands. i sometimes have broken sentences. i love to take the long ride there, the long scenic ride in a car or a boat…
or a kayak, better yet.
Yet, in the morning, is yet
as the day hasn’t come about yet, only the start of the day.
a day is a piece of the year, the years go faster and faster as i get older
older dogs get white whiskers,
whiskers on fish are… Oh i stopped! guess what five minutes feels long with using longhand.
Five minutes starts with an F.
F is the letter for fish unless it’s the band which starts with PH.
PH is the acidity or alkalinity number for something, base or acid. i think, i have that right?
writing spelled different than right, people get very attached to being right if they’ve been made to feel ashamed for being wrong.
to be wrong is loud, not sure why it’s so loud but it’s loud in my body,
a loud bad feeling.