May 2009
Make a List
A couple of summers ago, I took a wonderful writing workshop with Lynda Barry. She gave me and the other students many doorways into a daily writing practice. One of those doorways was list-making.
Sometimes, she said, you are too tired to write a chapter of your novel. Or a noble 3-page journal entry. Sometimes, all you have steam for is a simple list of 10 things that stood out for you about your day. But this is good enough. Making such a list keeps your pen moving across the paper, and keeps your heart moving in the right direction. And that is good enough.
The task is easy: Write down 10 impressions about today. Here’s my list for April 30th, 2009:
1. Morning fog blurring the view of the park
2. Two chairs by my desk—one black and one blue
3. Nino (dog) demanding food as I boil water for tea
4. Four bean plants sprouting on my desk
5. A wizened trumpet player on Nicollet Mall taking a smoke break
6. A strong wind on 6th street, and a business man saying “Wow” to it
7. Plaster stars and planets on the ceiling of the dance studio
8. The guitar player flipping his guitar over and playing it like a drum
9. A mostly-brown pineapple—I waited too long to cut it open
10. The orange glow in the bell tower across the dark park
The great thing about this kind of list-making is that it documents parts of your day that you would otherwise forget in a week or a month or a year. Looking back on your lists, you will recall these days through the filter of your sensory impressions. You start to notice what you notice. You can use this to better understand what interests you and what moves you. Isn’t that a beautiful thing?
If you want to write, you can start right now. Start with a list.