Daily Nourishment for September 8, 2024: You Will Forget Much, If Not Everything
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 40 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“Important: Take notes at the time, because you will forget much, if not everything, later—you will inevitably either forget the moment entirely or forget a part of it, so it won’t be as complete or interesting when you do note it down.” - Lydia Davis, “Thirty Recommendations for Good Writing Habits” from Essays One
Pause.
Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read the poem “After Arguing against the Contention That Art Must Come from Discontent” by William E. Stafford.
Prompt.
Here’s more from Lydia Davis:
“Revise notes constantly—try to develop the ability to read them as though you had never seen them before, to see how well they communicate. Constant revision, whether or not you’re going to ‘do’ anything with what you’ve written, also teaches you to write better in the first place, when you first write something down.”
Practice.
Set a timer for eight minutes and revise some of your existing notes. Write one good sentence. Or two. Or three.
Then set a five-minute timer and take new notes about something from yesterday before you forget. Before it becomes uninteresting or incomplete.
Want More?
James Baldwin on Revision: ”Rewriting [is] very painful. You know it’s finished when you can’t do anything more to it, though it’s never exactly the way you want it… The hardest thing in the world is simplicity. And the most fearful thing, too. You have to strip yourself of all your disguises, some of which you didn’t know you had. You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.”
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Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
—The September Co-Writing calendar is live.
—Early Bird Pricing Ends Monday Night—Spiritual Direction for Writers® + Enneagram for Creativity Gathering will take place on Friday, September 27th and Saturday, September 28th. You can register here. All registered participants will have access to recordings.
—The Great Belonging Project is live here and The Great Belonging Project October Refresh will take place Oct 1-Oct 31. The Great Belonging Project October Refresh is open for registration with Early Bird pricing of $10.
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
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