J. D. Montague's Hungry Garden Chronicles » writerly thoughts http://www.jdmontague.com The blog of writerly things...and other deliberate nonesense. Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:06:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Telling the Story, a New Mantra http://www.jdmontague.com/telling-story-mantra.html http://www.jdmontague.com/telling-story-mantra.html#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:54:43 +0000 J. D. Montague http://www.jdmontague.com/telling-story-mantra.html Continue reading →]]> In previous years I’ve tried the resolution route—telling myself I’ll do this, that, and the other—but it’s never quite worked out as I’d hoped. This year, I’m moving forward with a new attitude: Change. (Do what you’ve always done and get what you’ve always gotten.)

I’m not making unreasonable demands of myself and expecting to be a completely different person in a day or two, I’m setting small reasonable goals which will (I hope) lead to the accomplishment of my larger goals.

Page from my writing journal

One of those new smaller, more reasonable goals is simply to tell the story first and then refine it later. One of the reasons I have difficulty finishing a writing project is because somewhere during the process I start questioning the eloquence of the writing, the logic of the situations, or the general quality of it. No more.

Will it work? Not sure, but it’s certainly worth a try.

]]> http://www.jdmontague.com/telling-story-mantra.html/feed 0 Writerly Thought 003 http://www.jdmontague.com/writerly-thought-003.html http://www.jdmontague.com/writerly-thought-003.html#comments Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:01:08 +0000 J. D. Montague http://www.jdmontague.com/writerly-thought-003.html With all the books about writing lining my shelves, I should be a phenomenal author by now. I’m beginning to think mastery via osmosis is a myth.

]]> http://www.jdmontague.com/writerly-thought-003.html/feed 0 Writerly Thought 002 http://www.jdmontague.com/writerly-thought-002.html http://www.jdmontague.com/writerly-thought-002.html#comments Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:20:48 +0000 J. D. Montague http://www.jdmontague.com/?p=180 Continue reading →]]> Action: Progress doesn’t happen without change. If we all sat around waiting for something to be adopted without first taking action, progress would never occur. Nothing great in this world ever happened because people decided to sit, twiddling their thumbs, because the necessary action was “too hard”. Nothing ever got written that way either.

]]> http://www.jdmontague.com/writerly-thought-002.html/feed 0 Writerly Thought 001 http://www.jdmontague.com/writerly-thought-001.html http://www.jdmontague.com/writerly-thought-001.html#comments Sun, 08 May 2011 23:15:57 +0000 J. D. Montague http://www.jdmontague.com/?p=133 Continue reading →]]> I wish the stories poured out of me, fully-formed and coherent and captivating, like water rushing over a waterfall–at least then I would have a fighting chance of writing all the stories (even the half-ass ones) that are floating around inside my head.

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