Head lines

[kate_schaefer]

For years I've excelled at the writing that takes place only in one's head. Letters, journal entries, short stories, poems, essays, novel sections: if I had a tool to dump straight from first draft to paper without going through the fingers, I'd be a giant of literature. Had I that tool, you'd have it, too, and we'd all be fabulous writers.

We'd still need the editor, the voice that says that amazing essay was in fact fatuous now that it's all done, and it can be thrown out without anyone missing it at all. Some of us may not need the editor quite as much as we get it now.

Some of those unwritten essays in the past month have included:

- a description of the milk carton derby at Green Lake (annual race, anyone can enter, flotation must be provided by milk cartons, although it looked like a liberal interpretation allowed plastic milk bottles as well; major element of the race is not to sink the boat before the race ends)

- a meditation on the multiplicity of details going into a family wedding, dull in themselves to anyone not involved in that particular wedding, interesting in their sameness to all weddings (I used to think that the only things I could write about that would be interesting to anyone were things unique to me; as I grow older and older and older, I begin to think that the only things I write about that are interesting to others are things similar to those they have experienced)

- a description of a hike at Sunrise on Mount Rainier with Bridget Bradshaw, Carrie Root, Andy Hooper, and Glenn; on our way down the mountain after hiking, we passed a rusty, beat-up, cool old car (to my eye), instantly recognizable to Andy as a 1932 Crown Vicky, chopped and modified into a hot rod probably right after the Second World War

- a paragraph about the flock of small birds nearly always to be found in my backyard, moving as if a single animal from chainlink fence to lilac bush to wooden fence

and none of these is likely to be written at length. We go on.

Comments

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Ain't it the truth! The number of things that get composed, or half composed, in my head is tremendous. Belonging to deathless_pose is making me get a lot of stuff out of my head though. I just wish I had better discipline and wrote more consistently throughout the week instead of waiting for the end of the week and doing it all at once.

MKK

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

That's too bad. I'd have enjoyed reading any of those, and all of them as (or if) they appeared in LJ.

[jess-ka.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of the lj tidbit, myself. Long essays tend to seem longwinded to me, unless a person is just fricking brilliant or incredibly funny. I like the bits above.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

So, write them at shorth.

[alanro.livejournal.com]

Where did you hike to at Sunrise? We drove up there last Saturday, and hiked to Second Burroughs. The landscape reminded me of Baffin Island, but it was much warmer, and the views of the Mountain were absolutely stupendous.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

We hiked Sourdough Ridge/Frozen Lake/Shadow Lake, a much less challenging hike than yours, but spectacularly beautiful. The lupines and Indian paintbrush in the meadows were the lushest I've ever seen them. Bug was a fine hiking companion, especially once I took back the sunhat that kept blowing over her face.

We didn't see any marmots, but the ground squirrels and chipmunks were plentiful. At one point, a young mule deer walked casually between Bug and me. We envied it its enormous ears, so useful for flicking away blackfly.

[jess-ka.livejournal.com]

By my previous comment, of course, I did not mean that you are not both brilliant and amusing--just that I appreciate brevity in blogging.