For the writer, nothing is wasted.
One of the things I really, really love about being a writer is that no matter what you're doing, no matter what job you're working at to earn the rent, no matter who you're talking to, it always feeds into your own hoard (or perhaps horde) of writing fodder.
My main gig for the past year or so has been editing project documents at a coal-mining company. I now know many, many, many things that I never thought I would know. And I've made friends I never, ever would have met otherwise. For someone who hungers for meaning and purpose (such as like what I am), it is profoundly comforting to know that even if I can't see why something is happening in a certain way in my life, at least I can use it in a story.
posted by Laura E. Goodin @ 1:14 PM (permalink)
3 comment(s)
3 Comments:
I find the same problem with carrying a camera along -- it really does distance you from the experience. (Strangely, I'm sure the "this would make a good story" reflex does the same, but since I've been doing THAT since I was seven, I hardly notice it anymore.)
My feeling is to always take a camera, because there are certain things that only you and your camera can capture (like a picture I cherish of us visiting Laura and family when our daughter was but a pup).
For scenery and sights, I find that picture postcards and such have better pics that I could take (generally taken when the weather is better). On the other hand, I can compare a purchased scene of the Blue Mountains with the fogged-in, raining scene that we got to see.
Anyway, it's the same reason I've never bought a video camera. I never wanted to separate myself from actual events just so I could have a recording of them that wouldn't be as good as my memory of the experience.
This, of course, puts you all in the same league as Alan Bennet, who writes down EVERYTHING he hears in order to use it when the time comes. It's very good company to be in! Bennet loves the language and humour of his native north of England, and much of what he has in note books is not meant to be funny, but comes across that way when taken out of context.
Muscially speaking, Peter Sculthorpe says we should be that way too as composers, acting as musical magpies and taking from as many sources as possible.
h
Post a Comment
<< Home