blog – Andrew Careaga

Failing to flourish

All around me, life is flourishing. But my writing life feels like it is dying on the vine.

Here we are in the middle of April, and all around me in this part of the world I see dogwoods are in full bloom, the brilliant purple flowers of redbuds giving way to the new, tender sprouts of leaves, and the dreary, dirty browns of winter erased by lush greenery, from lawns to trees to fertile undergrowth. My unevenly green yard is bursting with the yellow flowers of dandelions, which contrast with the canvas of lawn like the radiant stars of Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night.

All around me, life is flourishing, as it should be in mid-April. But my writing life feels like it is dying on the vine.

Beginner’s mind and the writer

Perhaps for the writer, beginner’s mind can begin with the notion of writing as a journey, an exploration with no specific destination in mind.

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,

but in the expert’s there are few.

— Shunryu Suzuki

I’ve only been at this creative writing thing for a year, but sometimes I forget that I’m a beginner. With that in mind, I’m trying to embrace and understand anew the concept of beginner’s mind. So in an attempt to wipe the slate clean, I’m going back to the beginning, or near beginning, of this writing journey by republishing a post from exactly a year ago. I post it to remind myself how much I need to still unlearn — and to remind me that I ain’t no guru.

When I can’t write…

… at least I can blog.

There are days when the writing just zips along. The hours devoted to crafting little fictions breeze by.

Then there are the days when writing is a slog, or when life’s many interruptions cut into writing time.

Writing (by hand) to remember

New research suggests that writing by hand helps us remember.

These past couple of years, as I’ve begun to take the craft of writing more seriously, I’ve found that writing by hand tends to make me more thoughtful and more engaged in the writing process. Also, when I compose ideas for stories on paper, I tend to have better recall of those ideas than those I tap out on a computer, smartphone notes app, or tablet.

Now there’s some research that supports the idea that writing by hand helps us remember.

To start, perchance to finish

I have several writing projects underway. A good many of them are in the phase of what I would call “a good start.” Too few of them are anywhere near the finish line.

(With apologies to Shakespeare.)

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.
Ecclesiastes 7:8

I have several writing projects underway. A good many of them are in the phase of what I would call “a good start.” Too few of them are anywhere near the finish line.