Do you ever feel like time is shrink-wrap, conforming to your habits and pushing out your occasional, deviant joys? I don't like having the mere outline of a life. The only thing I can do is to tear at the shrink-wrap, or else make more things habitual.
Writing, for instance. Who says I have to limit myself to the Most Important Matters first? It isn't as though there is a shortage of ink. Writing is positive feedback. The more you write, the more you create an addiction to write. Starting today, I'm tackling all of my backlogged correspondence, my limping blog, and my dusty idea-books. They will be viewed. Written-in. Covered with words in their imperfection. I will not wait until summer to work on sellable fiction. I will feed my sense of wonder until it is a bonfire, until others' firepits spontaneously ignite. Write, my friends, write! Write before you rot!
...and then post something here of your writing. It doesn't have to be more than a phrase. I'm just keeping you honest! Throw a stick onto the fire, eh? It's cold without words.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Can I read instead?
ReplyDeleteCompete with Gaia
ReplyDeleteCoppice grows schorched land sprouts
Joyful crazyness
'Course, it would help if I could spell scorchèd
ReplyDeleteThe shrink wrap I had not considered. I had always seen it as a shark, or a very efficient chess player. Yes, shrink wrap is a good, round metaphor for how hemmed in we are by perceived necessity.
ReplyDeleteBreak free! It's like you're opening a birthday gift to yourself! :-D
For you, a peek:
ReplyDeleteAs Mikal followed behind, the darkened room opened up around him, its ceiling easily twice his height. As the door behind him closed with a whisper, the first gray-blue light of dawn seeped through a broad pane opposite the door, allowing Mikal's eyes to see the room. It cast Orfis' armored form in sillhouette, and she turned to face him. "Look," she said. He stepped over next to her across the expanse of bare floor, and out the broad window he saw the city below, its dilapidated rooftops and irregular skyline familiar to him. Nearly below them was the first line of buildings, erected against the hull of the ancient structure itself in which they stood. Streets radiated out, diverging at odd angles, and the buildings grew lower and lower out toward the edge of the city. Far off in the distance, the morning mists hung over the faint expanse of the edges of the inner fields. Lights flickered all throughout the buildings' windows in the city, surely their occupants in preparation for the eventful day to come. Already dark shapes streamed in the streets, irregularly lit by moving torchlight.
"I see Vindulan, preparing for Melthiswatch," he said.
She stood unmoving. "What else do you see?"
He paused, thinking over the obvious answers to her seeking question. The inner fields, he knew, were not the object of her lesson, but she did not bring him to this overlook merely on a whim. "The endurance of the First Ones, and our charge to preserve," he said finally.
Orfis made no sound, but raised her leather-gloved arm to point far out beyond the city. "You see with your mind the Wall as you do the city with your eyes. Frize does not understand this. We have watched you, Mikal, for some time now, and though the Council's decision was not made in our presence, your selection comes as no surprise." She lowered her arm, but continued in the same expository tone. "Let me be clear: you have allies in this process. But do not rely on us for direct aid. You must prove your mettle to Frize on your own. We will simply stand by you--for you also have enemies."
"You don't mean Frize."
"Not him alone, no. Vestor said the Council spoke as one, but..."
"But?"
"You will see in time what he meant. This Watch you are bound for the Wall with Frize, but do not forget what I have said. You are not alone."
Mikal stood, saying nothing, and the General turned to leave. Behind him, her voice faded as she called out a final command. "Do not disappoint, son of Therin." The quiet hum of the door ceased as Orfis left, and Mikal stood surveying Vindulan, considering his next move.