Saturday, November 10, 2012

One Scribble at a Time


It seems like all I'm talking about these days is schoolwork. It makes sense. It’s consuming my life and will continue to be my main focus until December 5th. Yes, I have the date memorized. I've already started planning what I’m going to do once I’m set free. These daydreams are dangerous, but sometimes I need them to get me through the most taxing assignments.

 Regretfully, I haven’t been doing any creative writing. In place of actual poems I have scraps of paper with strange scribbles and random rushed thoughts. As I was cleaning, I found all sorts of note cards,  old receipts, and paper bag remnants with single words or phrases scrawled in barely legible pencil (it’s my preferred writing implement). I've now relegated my scraps to a bucket. But I’m awfully concerned that when I try to go through the bucket and draw some inspiration from my disjointed thoughts I will have completely lost access to that fleeting spark. Another thing I've started doing is writing passing thoughts on the notepad on my Iphone. I know…pretty gross.

I've always favored the organic process of writing by hand, but out of convenience, or survival, I'm resorting to technology. It’s creating a self-conflicting disgust. On the one hand I don’t want to stop writing completely. On the other hand I feel silly. I feel like my words mean less.There is just something about looking at your words on a miniature glowing screen with a yellow notepad background that is absurd.

What I want to know is what method do you use for writing? Do you notice a difference in the quality of your work when you switch from typing to handwriting? It will be interesting once the quarter is over to return to my scrap bucket and see if those ideas have been incubating in the recesses of my mind, or if they were merely superficial flights of fancy. I'll be sure to fill you in and continue cataloging my strange move to the fast-paced world of technology.  Or I may drop out of college, retreat to a cave, and start chiseling all of my poetry.  

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