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Anthony Alvarado

Anthony Alvarado

Monthly Archives: May 2014

Doing a Writer’s Residency

24 Saturday May 2014

Posted by Alvarado in Uncategorized

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I just got back from doing a writing residency on the coast of Washington at the Sou’wester. i had a great time and spending the week outside of my normal routine really got me thinking about  the importance of shaking things up. So I wanted to write a post about that here, but first let me describe the place for you. ( A residency is different from a workshop etc. basically there is no structure, you’re time is your own to work as you please.)

teafire

It’s this weird little caravan of trailers all rigged up a stone’s throw from what is billed as “the longest beach in the world”. The surrounding country side is breathtaking. Rolling grassy dunes, and nearby wetlands, I have never seen so many varieties of wild birds in one spot: frigates, terns, gulls, ravens, eagles, falcons, robins, shearwater, ducks galore, as well as deer, and a baby seal! The most beautiful creature I saw was, strangely, a big snail with a fancy shell.

trailer

That’s a pic of my trailer. The trailers are decked out with everything you could wish for, a shower, kitchenette, and the coolest part a record listening room, with a well stocked collection of great records. I had forgotten how listening to vinyl is such a different experience than listening to something on iTunes. It is hard to explain why, but it is definitely the case. Just as writing with a computer feels different than writing with a pencil and paper. The words come out differently somehow. I now have to track down these three records, as I listened to them kind of obsessively all last week. Also, I feel like you end up enjoying different music than you might normal, when you are listening on vinyl.

record

1. Mississipi John Hurt – Today!

2. Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy

3. Laila Je T’Aime

 

I spent the mornings working on writing. The afternoon walking around on the longest beach. And the evening staring into a large outdoor fire and listening to records, while enjoying a drink I invented for the occasion: 1 part bourbon to two parts tart cherry juice. A Sou’Wester.

fire

Now here is the point. Did I get more writing done than I usually do in a week? No. My daily output was the same as usual. But the experience of writing in a different location, with different scenery, with the ocean as a backdrop, changed everything. And changed the experience of working for a week in a way that is hard to describe, similar to the way that vinyl is different from mp3s. It is qualitatively different in a way that is hard to put your finger on. The main thing was I think, to get outside of the routine. And I am not saying you should always be trying to break your routine! Because having a daily routine is one of the most powerful things an artist can do. It helps you get into the groove so that you are committed to working every day.

ocean

No, I got the same amount of work done while staying at the writer’s residency as I would have working from home. But I came back from my stay feeling refreshed, feeling a new sense of purpose, spending days wandering aimlessly about on the beach gave me a new perspective on big picture stuff. I thought a lot about not just the project of that week ( a short story, which frankly I only half finished) but thinking about the purpose and focus of my work. Which is something that every artists needs to think about from time to time whether they be a writer, a painter, a musician, a poet, a dancer . . .rock

There are a lot of opportunities for artist’s to do residencies. I think a lot of times people think that doing a residency means traveling abroad for a few months to Paris or something likethat. But it doesn’t have to be, there are plenty of great opportunities nearby, and often they run for just a week. Some of them are 0-40 bucks to apply, while others are free. Here are some resources:

www.resartis.org/en/

http://www.artistcommunities.org/residencies

“a top 20 guide to residencies”

Now if you can’t afford to do a residency or can’t find one near you, I recommend this: just get a tent and a sleeping back and head to the coast, or the desert, or the forest for a few days. Bring your work with you. But remember it is not so much about the work that you get done while you are working outside of your routine, it is about that ineffable something, that you get from thinking about your art, your muse, your project, outside of the day to day routine. Try it and you are sure to come back feeling refreshed and in the groove for working on stuff back home in your regular day to day routine.

feet

Compare yourself to the Greats

14 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by Alvarado in Uncategorized

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I’m going to give you some bad advice. As a writer I think you should constantly compare yourself to the Greats. I mean the greatest writers of all time, the people who wrote the classics. I know that a lot of people would disagree with me, and would say it is foolhardy as a young writer to constantly be comparing your writing to the work of people like Rilke, Faulkner, Hemingway, Beckett etc. That to compare yourself to the greatest writers of all time would be daunting to say the least, and maybe even so intimidating it would make you give up all hope of ever getting good.

hemagain(In his memoir Papa Hem talks of comparing himself to the old Russian writers, and constantly trying to “beat” them at writing.)

But I have noticed that we writers tend to fetishize, and lionize our idols too much. We respect the work of the Classics so much that we start to think that these Greats were superhumans who could do no wrong, and everything they wrote was pure genuis. Which isn’t the case at all, frankly every writer I just named did pen a few stinkers in his day. The thing is we tend to remember people for their best stuff, not their failures.

Of course when I say to compare yourself to Hemingway, Beckett etc. that’s if you want to write great literary fiction. If you just want to pen massive best sellers you should compare yourself and your writing to Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, George R. Marin etc. I am serious, whoever you literary hero is, when you approach a scene you should ask yourself, how would they write this scene . . .and now how can I do them one better.

This is why reading a lot is so crucial to knowing how to write well. If you are a bookworm you already know what works and what doesn’t. This is also why writing can’t really be learned by going to workshops and writer’s groups. Because it is actually learned by reading tons of books. You are either a reader or you’re not, if you don’t read and you think you can learn how to write . . . good luck pal.

In most other endeavors people naturally compare themselves to the greats all the time. For example tennis novices will constantly talk of how to swing a back hand like Roger Federer. Because they are holding up an example of the perfect form to emulate. Aspiring writers should stop putting a wall between themselves and their idols, and instead ask : how can I do what they did, and write like they wrote?federer

Secondly, and this is a little but trickier: not only should you compare your writing to the greats but it is good to compare your life against theirs. Let’s say you admire Beckett above all other writers. Then you should ask yourself: what would Beckett do in this situation? One must take oneself seriously in order to make this sort of comparison, but it goes a long way to developing a sense of self and a seriousness of intent that is vital to good writing. In other words, comparing yourself to the Greats keeps you serious about what you are doing. An artist must never be apologetic about what they are.

Beckett, Tangiers 1978. Check out those sandals!

Beckett, Tangiers 1978. Check out those sandals!

It is good to know who your heroes are, as a writer. Here is a simple excerise. Make a simple list of 10 of your favorite writers of all time. Writers who you would be proud to be compared with. Keep that list in your desk drawer and look at it when you need motivation to try harder, to stretch for the highest apple on the tree.

Here is mine – obviously yours will be totally different! (and I’m not saying these are the 10 greatest writers of all time! just that, for me they are role models. They are who I train to compete with. I want to become just as good as my heroes, or die trying. Is that arrogant? Yes! Must a writer be arrogant? No, (consider Kafka) but it certainly helps.)

1. Roberto Bolano

bolano_395

2. Haruki Murakami

3. Hemingway

4. Salinger

5. Dostoevsky

6. Cormac McCarthy

cormac--mccarthy

7. J. R.R. Tolkien

8. David Foster Wallace

9. Gabriel Garcia Marquez

10. Richard Brautigan

tumblr_lwzz5knyr01qcd1h5o1_400

 

(next week’s post: WWBW? – what would Beckett wear?)

Solvitur Ambulando

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by Alvarado in Uncategorized

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Tags

creativity, flanuer, pie club, ramble, stroll, take a walk, walking, walking the dog, walt whitman, walter benjamin

Solvitur Ambulando: It is solved by walking. What is? Anything! Any problem, question, any thing that you need to ponder and need ideas about, walking is the way to go. When you walk your muse walks with you. Some problems are one or two block walks. Some are larger and may require miles of walking.

As Steven Wright said; “Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.”

Walk. The word comes from the Old English word wealcan, which means “to roll”. One could make a joke here about “Walk & Roll”. But I won’t.

It is good to have an accustomed place to walk towards. This gives you the excuse to get walking. Because, unfortunately these days we feel like we need to be “going somewhere” in order to go anywhere. People rarely seem to just go out and walk just to walk. (A good way to getting around this is to get a dog. Dogs are too wise to need an excuse to take a walk.)

Walking-the-dog

For a while my favorite place to walk in the evening was this bar about a mile and a half down the road. Perfect for a round trip! However I recently quit drinking (yesterday) so I can no longer take advantage of that as an excuse to walk. It is good to have multiple excuses to walk. Lately I have started something I like to call PIE CLUB. It is just like FIGHT CLUB, except you meet up with a friend and eat pie instead of beating the snot out of each other in a basement. The first rule of PIE CLUB is you put real whip cream on the pie. Sadly, you can only eat so much pie a week. So I am looking into other nearby walking excuses. I’ll keep you posted.

Fight-Club-Brad-Pitt

Fight Club VS. Pie Club . . .
photo-1But this essay has sauntered away from the original point, walking, and into pie eating. Which reminds me the original definition of the word essay was coined by Montaigne, because he wanted to write in a way that was free to meander, saunter, sashay and lollygag from topic to topic in a path as idiosyncratic and unique as human thought. Thus the modern definition of essay, was invented, but the older definition meant, of course, to sally forth, that is : to walk.

 

Perhaps walking is so good for our thoughts and brains because in it’s rhythmic circumlocution, in it’s rhythms and it’s gait, it’s freedom, and it’s exercise which is both refreshing and strengthening it mirrors the rhythms and vicissitudes of human thought.

In the first years of this century, a man was seen walking each and every day—regardless of the weather, be it sunshine or snow—around the ramparts of the city of Vienna. This man was Beethoven, who, in the midst of his wanderings, would work out magnificent symphonies in his head before putting them down on paoper. For him, the world no longer existed; in vain would people greet him respectfully as he passed. He saw nothing; his mind was elsewhere.

—Walter Benjamin

walking-away1

If the term walking sounds too pedestrian to you, then think of it as a ramble. There is something very American about the idea of a ramble. Thoreau loved to ramble. Whitman loved to ramble, and take long breaks to ogle people. When you ramble in this way; pausing to sit or stand around, it is called loafing. Whatever your speed: get out there and walk! Today is a good day to start.

How do I love a loafer! Of all human beings, none equals your genuine, inbred,  unvarying loafer . . . he belongs to that ancient and honorable fraternity. —Walt Whitman

keep-calm-and-go-for-a-walk-3

Tools to bring:

An umbrella (if it’s cloudy)

layer your clothing ( if you leave in the morning or eve, it can easily change 10 degrees in an hour or two)

a notebook to capture ideas

pocket change to buy refreshements. Such as pie.

 

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