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So this week is GISH and I am participating. I have already written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson recommending my cat Sophie for the position of Downing Street spokesperson. I am currently working on concepts for a piece of mail art, as well as concepts for a triadic-line poem. Because, you know, poetry isn't hard enough without conforming to an uncommon metrical form. I am a little mad.
But before this, I was eye-deep in junk journaling, which I intend to get back to. And what I am finding is that I am finding flow with an ease I had forgotten could happen. And I'm good at this. As I prepared my substrate for the mail art, I found myself just floating in the process, doing it almost without thought--which is the place I used to get to when writing fiction. (That hasn't happened in quite some time.) But it makes me feel capable, confident, connected. My plan is to continue to do this kind of visual work, mainly to enjoy the process.
The one thing I have to resist is the temptation to get all ambitious about The World Seeing My Work. That's one of the things that broke me about writing fiction. I succeeded in publication, and the few stories that were reviewed were well-reviewed indeed. But once that self-consciousness about writing for publication overwhelmed my honest desire to just tell stories? It all became a chore, and an unpleasant one. (And that's excluding a lot of other baggage that got attached to my writing fiction--but that's a subject for another time). So I'm going to just enjoy this process and let it be the gift that it is. Anything else overburdens the pleasure with unnecessary considerations. And we'll see what I produce.
But before this, I was eye-deep in junk journaling, which I intend to get back to. And what I am finding is that I am finding flow with an ease I had forgotten could happen. And I'm good at this. As I prepared my substrate for the mail art, I found myself just floating in the process, doing it almost without thought--which is the place I used to get to when writing fiction. (That hasn't happened in quite some time.) But it makes me feel capable, confident, connected. My plan is to continue to do this kind of visual work, mainly to enjoy the process.
The one thing I have to resist is the temptation to get all ambitious about The World Seeing My Work. That's one of the things that broke me about writing fiction. I succeeded in publication, and the few stories that were reviewed were well-reviewed indeed. But once that self-consciousness about writing for publication overwhelmed my honest desire to just tell stories? It all became a chore, and an unpleasant one. (And that's excluding a lot of other baggage that got attached to my writing fiction--but that's a subject for another time). So I'm going to just enjoy this process and let it be the gift that it is. Anything else overburdens the pleasure with unnecessary considerations. And we'll see what I produce.
