Scheduled Inspiration

The week is already halfway done and I am amazed at how quickly time is going this week. I have been sticking to the regime of writing in the evenings twice a week for 4-5 hours and it has been working really well. I've chosen the Portland Community College-Sylvania Library as my chosen location and the small study rooms afford me a sequestered peace that is otherwise unattainable at home. Closing the door to the small study room, the blackboard marked up with theorems and equations from an earlier study group, I settle in with my computer in front of me. The room I typically choose is near the collections of short stories and as a meditative moment before I begin the writing, I browse anthologies like "Bread Loaf" and "The Best American Short Stories". It is inspiring to read stories from the greats like Raymond Carver, Tim Gautreaux, and other lesser known writers. There are stories I like and ones that I don't and I realize that there may be a place for me out there in the world where my stories will have effect, will be heard.

I think that is the greatest idea I can think of: to have one of my stories really be heard by someone. The written word is another form of communication after all and why else do I torture myself with these imaginary people if it is not to be heard or felt.

So, my evenings in the library begin by me taking a look at other people's stories, reading one or two short pieces before I open up my computer and take my position, leg tucked under my butt, hands braced against the keyboard and I search myself for a first line, a character, an interesting snatch of dialogue. I'm not very formulaic as to how I begin a story. I start from any number of places. Oftentimes I just begin typing without any idea of where I am going or who may emerge on the page. Some times it can take me 6-10 pages before I discover my beginning. Some people may find this frustrating - to write that many pages before the beginning appears - but what I find is that those first pages will have an image or a piece of dialogue that informs the story and will be cannibalized for a piece later on.

As of late I have been writing whole stories in a single sitting, maybe two, they are rough and weak little things but there is a spark there. I'm trying to let go of the idea that the stories need to come out whole form on the first go round. What I'm looking for is a framework to tear apart, a place to begin what I'm beginning to see as the real work of writing: revision. Revision is a beast of another nature and will need to be focused on in a different post but it is the natural conclusion to that onrush of creative inspiration that I find in the PCC library where the industrial beams are exposed and the shadows cast from the setting sun elongate into diamond shapes, criss-crossed as they are. The smell of old books, the weight of other students' academic endeavors and a chalkboard scribbled with mathematical certainties awaits me each time I sit down to write.