Strange how much place and habit fuels or limits our writing. For much of the writing of This Many Miles from Desire, I was traveling and writing on yellow legal pads. I would sit in the largest plazas I could find, and that alone would generate a draft of a poem. In fact, I still have two notebooks of poem drafts I wrote in Honduras and Belize from several years ago. I remember being on a dock on the Honduras coast, in the Caribbean where the water is crystal clear, and five or six dark red flower petals bobbed by my feet. I still want to write about those petals someday. I like reading about people's writing habits. Oliver De La Paz writes often to music. Philip Levine said something about not being able to write by a window with a panoramic, gorgeous view. Keats often bathed, put on his best Sunday clothes, and wrote then.
Since Fresno is my home city, and I like it, I am in a decent writing "zone," if you will, but I am reminding myself (out loud) to keep finding good music, good books, beautiful landscapes and run-down grit (Fresno has plenty of both) to fuel my writing. I also might return to the yellow legal pad for a while. I'm about halfway (30 poems or so) toward the second manuscript, which is still untitled. I have appreciated those of you who have backchanneled me your thoughts about the word "acoustic" and what it evokes. I'm nearing a title. When it comes to me, I will be a happy man.
I write poems (and have for most of my writing life by now) in a spiral bound stenographer's notebook. Actually, for many years, two notebooks, one for poems that are part of a large long series of poems I've been working on for years, the other for all other poems. I carry the notebooks with me everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI also carry other notebooks with me (standard, spiral bound on the left side) for general note taking, making lists of things, etc.
I write poems in what's now usually called cursive writing (when I was in grade school we called it handwriting). I usually write poems with all lowercase letters, and leave them that way. The poems usually have uneven margins on both the left and right sides, and I leave them that way too. When I write prose or just general writing things down, I print in all capital letters, with straight left-side margins on the page.
I never do any actual writing on the computer (and didn't on the typewriter when I used one), though (with prose) I may do some minor editing there. With poems I do all the actual writing (and editing etc.) by hand on paper.
I don't work in drafts. I start with the first line, and work my way through line by line, crossing out and rewriting as I go. If I get stuck someplace part way through, I stop and let the poem sit and wait for what comes next. I've waited anywhere from a few minutes to more than ten years for the next line in a poem. Once the next line comes, I pick up where I left off. So, generally, by the time I finish a poem, the first draft is also, in effect, the final draft. My notebook pages are full of crossed out lines.
I've found I can write poems almost anywhere, under almost any circumstances. I write in the mornings before work, during my breaks at work, in the evenings after I get off work, any time of the day or night that I have free time. I write in small cafes, coffeehouses, shopping malls, outdoors, indoors, at the library. I enjoy writing in large open spaces (either indoors or out), though I also do a lot of writing sitting in bed at night.
I tend to enjoy some kind of ambient noise going on around me when I'm writing, though it doesn't have to be anything special. I write a lot with the T.V. on as background noise. I've written at bus stops on busy streets. I've written in total solitude and silence. With music (all kinds) and without. I've written poems while I'm sitting and talking with people (at least when they'll tolerate it, which most of my friends will).
Doesn't seem to matter what I'm wearing, as long as it's comfortable.
Pretty much the only limits are basic mechanical -- hard to write while riding the bus because it's bumpy, the pen keeps moving where it shouldn't. Hard to write in the rain because the paper gets soggy and the ink runs. Hard to write outside when it's really cold because my fingers get numb and the ink starts to freeze so the pen won't write. Hard to write in the dark because I can't see what I'm writing (though once or twice I've written a few lines by flashlight or moonlight). That kind of thing.
I'm really fascinated by this subject too, the habits poets and writers have when we write. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks for posting, Lyle. I'm so interested in the writer's environment and how it affects output. I find myself writing on my laptop more and more these days, but as I mentioned I'd like to return to the legal pads just to mix things up. I imagine writers always have some preferences for pens, too---black or blue, fine or medium point, and why. I doubt these things have as much to do with the quality of the poem as much as the opportunity to produce. Enjoyed your comment.
ReplyDeleteKeats was also physical sick. There was something beautiful in his routine that lead to great lyric poems. I never know what writer to listen to when it comes to writing habits. Philip Levine once did a reading from his "The Mercy" collection that left me wondering what type of habits he had. When I asked, he said in isolation. I think there's something to that. I always did my best writing in the basement with a word processor that didn't allow me access to the internet. I had to look at the page. At the same time, I couldn't write without being outside when I wasn't writing, because that's where my thoughts marinated. That's where I also gathered new ideas, scribbled down notes, and did character studies as I watched people. Little did they know they've populated my stories. And, just to reveal my secret - black pens, medium point, roller ball, because you can't erase, and it glides over the page as fast as my thoughts. Of course, Moleskine soft cover pocket unlined notebooks to allow me room to sketch if needed.
ReplyDeleteYes, isolation---indoors or out---seems to work best. I really like Levine's interviews on writing. He's such a remarkable poet and inspiration for the work ethic. And, I like black ink, too---roller ball or those gel pens. Happy writing to you, and thanks for the post.
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