tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8814316106003515418.post2916819198285823300..comments2018-10-20T03:28:50.245+11:00Comments on Cri de Coeur: Pierz Newton-Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03543526839423103591noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8814316106003515418.post-51842590668170308452009-08-11T11:01:59.903+10:002009-08-11T11:01:59.903+10:00So you made me think about a few things and you mi...So you made me think about a few things and you might be interested in checking out my most recent post on my blog. I'd love to get a comment from you, if you were that way inclined.A. S. Patrichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10864975526834406061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8814316106003515418.post-30107198564243336622009-08-09T22:59:57.380+10:002009-08-09T22:59:57.380+10:00Seems a mute point I'm going after here since ...Seems a mute point I'm going after here since it looks like everything is going brilliantly for you. Congrats on Meanjin. Let me ask you though, where did you find rocks, stones and explosives in what I wrote. I said you are the river, not a thing entering the river, and the fish is my point. The ideas. Those flashes of insight. The epiphanies we're always looking for. Wasn't that a great line by the way in the Wells Tower story, where he says I feel like a bumblebee trying to f__k a marble. It doesn't always yield easily, the muse, though it's not exactly a marble either, is it? So I'll look forward to Meanjin. Cheers.A. S. Patrichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10864975526834406061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8814316106003515418.post-15336704985847264492009-08-09T20:50:20.946+10:002009-08-09T20:50:20.946+10:00Thanks for your remarks, Alec. So - no excuses huh...Thanks for your remarks, Alec. So - no excuses huh? Don't worry, I do have work in the pipeline. A new story due in Meanjin next month, and a couple under consideration elsewhere, not to mention two new stories that I'm working on. I don't disagree with you in principle, but in my experience the creative process that underlies writing is not so easily commanded. Your rocks-in-the-river metaphor is an extension of the whole blockage idea, where that which stops the flow is something extrinsic and presumably in need of depth-charging. In practice I usually hold to that idea too and sit down and sweat at the keyboard, trying to blast my way through. But in this post I was musing on another possibility I hadn't considered before: namely that block and flow are part of the one dynamic. I am the river *and* the stones, to use your analogy, and the stones themselves may serve their own purpose, so long as the underlying will to create remains, which is something I have no control over anyway. Call it gestation or something. Sometimes I think I need to put away the pen and allow the new creative impetus time to take shape in me. I need to muse and be open and take the pressure off in order to allow something playful and unexpected to occur. It's just about allowing the possibility of a natural creative rhythm, rather than fighting myself so damn hard all the time. Well, maybe it's just self-serving, turning a pig's ear into a silk purse, but it *feels* right to me. It feels like I can breathe again thinking this way.<br /><br />Anyway, glad you enjoyed my work, and I'm sure you'll have more opportunity to read it in the future.<br /><br />PierzPierz Newton-Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03543526839423103591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8814316106003515418.post-4545689618240060322009-08-09T16:09:08.936+10:002009-08-09T16:09:08.936+10:00Hi Pierz,
I've enjoyed some of your stories. ...Hi Pierz,<br /><br />I've enjoyed some of your stories. Enough, I suppose, to google you and come across your blog here. I'm a big fan of Wells Tower and his collection myself. I work in a bookstore and sell as many of them as I can. But I notice that you write a lot about writer's block. You use some interesting metaphors here, but in a way that allows you to accept it rather than to open up and start flowing again. No you can't push a river, but perhaps you 'are' the river, in which case all obstacles should be removed. Because what's key in this regard is the current. Which is to say the desire. And clearly that's strong. It's a shame because as I said, I think you write well. I'd like to read more. The field doesn't need to lie fallow -- the river is full of fish.<br /><br />Alec PatricA. S. Patrichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10864975526834406061noreply@blogger.com