Writer's Block

Q: What did you learn from your writing sessions with Lucas, and, based on your original contract objectives what has changed?

Like the rest of the original objectives this quarter, the "writer's block" session between Lucas and I has progressed into it's own direction, and taken on a dimension that is more braided and integrated with the rest of the contract, specifically in regard to this synergy thing that I am always talking about. I originally intended for Lucas and I to meet up once a week for a couple of hours where we would first talk about one of the writer's manuals that we've read, free write, and then bounce back and forth ideas. While we've accomplished this, we ended up meeting more frequently during the week and integrating other elements like bike riding and even bird watching. Originally, I intended for Lucas to copy-edit pieces, but towards the middle of the quarter I was less interested with this and more interested in helping to nurture the creative process.  In this way, nothing has lacked, just opened up.
              Not Everything went as planned. In the ten weeks, there were times when we didn't agree, or we were frustrated with each other and with ourselves. Lucas is at a different place in his life, and he doesn't have the same school orientated objectives as myself, so his writing reflected these factors, and because so, we had to modify our time to accommodate these differences. Again however, these modifications and changes are not bad things and depending on how you look at the situation, were actually beneficial to the learning process.
               Similiar to other components of the contract, differentiating between "official" class time and just the more organic time Lucas and I have spent together presented another challenge. We didn't sit in a class room, or even an area that was restricted by four walls. Most of the time, given then nature of the season, we spent time outside, either in Volunteer Park, or even discussing challenges over long walks through the heart of the city. But in the end, nothing is really missing, things are just gained in various layers, that take more time to process.
                    What comes from this is a shit ton of writing. A lot of gobbled y-goop. Hard stuff. Like preschoolers learning how to paint, only the difference is, the both of us are adult preschoolers, fighting against perfectionism and age. We learned to make mistakes, and get over ourselves, and just write -pages and pages of informal rants, spiels, and bemoans, are the end result. The writing muscles have been flexing though, through the whole thing. A lot of my writing can be self-deprecating, but I've had to get over that. In one hundred years, the chances are, that nobody will even remember any of this shit, and it's important to just do all of this for myself, but that is a lot easier said than done. So, the "publishable essay" format is out the window, and the "one foot in front of the other, lets just learn how to walk, and take it slow, then maybe we'll start jogging, and if we're feeling confident we'll sprint" format is in.

Q: You've talked about the synergy that weaves together the components of the contract into a whole, can you elaborate more on how the writer's block has influenced, and been influenced by this synergy?

Haha. Using the terminology so openly gives it this religious infomercial sheen, "be touched by the synergy! Live a more integrated full life. Know yourself." Um, a good example is a bike trip to Vashon Island that we took in week 7. Instead of meeting up at 6pm like we usually do, we took a whole day, a field trip if you will, to Vashon Island, riding there on bike. Well obviously, we had to take the ferry over from West Seattle, but by the end of the day we had 30+ miles under our belt of up hill bike ride through the island. So the cool thing is, and I've said this before in other areas on the blog, not only were we working on writing, we were exercising, and in a little way, practicing those habits of sustainability that I am always talking about. We spent less money. Got great exercise, and spent half of the day on the beach, identifying birds, and writing in the relative tranquility of the wilderness. Yeah, I mean, this is fodder for half the country who may think Evergreen is a radical hippie sect, but doing this stuff is good for me in multiple ways.

Week 9-10 is the same idea. For the Mother Earth News Fair, we're going to camp, and there will be a last update on this whole experience.