August 28, 2009<\/p>\n
Today I rushed to the Kennedy Center to get stuck there during a rain.\u00a0 Black clouds\u00a0sailed into view.\u00a0 Lightning flashed.\u00a0 The storm approached rapidly, but I made it ahead of the rain.\u00a0 Naughty fellow, rushing away from my office instead of\u00a0back towards it,\u00a0risking spending more than a lunch hour away from work.<\/p>\n
I stood\u00a0under the towering eve on the Kennedy\u2019s Potomac side, rain pouring just beyond me,\u00a0my mind full of thoughts and ideas, and decided it was time to start writing regularly.\u00a0 Finally!\u00a0 I thought, why not approach writing like I tell my wife and children to approach a big job: subdivide it.\u00a0 Don\u2019t aim for a novel, a short story or an essay. Only commit to write one good sentence per day.\u00a0 If I write two or two hundred, o.k.\u00a0 My commitment, however, is one.\u00a0 The Julie and Julia project blog\u00a0and movie inspires me. \u00a0It tells the story of a stymied writer not writing, depressed, unfulfilled.\u00a0 She makes a public (blogged) commitment to cook through The Art of French Cooking in one year.\u00a0 For me, I will write one decent sentence a day.<\/p>\n
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As the rain\u00a0gushed around me, so did ideas in my brain.\u00a0 I\u00a0toyed with names for the project, (the blog?).\u00a0 The Sentence\u00a0A Day Club (SAD?! Oh brother!).\u00a0 The Sentence Per Day club?\u00a0 How about 365 Sentences Per Year?\u00a0 Per annum?\u00a0 365 PA\/PY?\u00a0 It is a little depressing to lack the imagination at the moment to even conjure a name I like.<\/p>\n
Then, just like clockwork, it happened.\u00a0 I no sooner decided on a small, doable goal, when my mind races head to other things, bigger than just writing a sentence.\u00a0 I realized that I do lots of literary things.\u00a0 I read books. I read magazines. \u00a0I read papers.\u00a0 This dyed-in-the-wool fiction reader is even reading essays, biographies and histories.\u00a0 I memorize poems.\u00a0 I study favorite writers (Robert Burns, E.B. White).\u00a0 I even host, with my wife, literary events like a Burns Night last January and her Poetry Birthday Party in December.\u00a0 I\u00a0realized I was\u00a0inadvertently putting myself through a sort of Remedial Literary Review 101 and somehow wanted to make it a part of the Daily Sentence.<\/p>\n
Again, I wondered what I’d call this project?\u00a0 I admire writers who pair words that don\u2019t seem to belong together and decided to use the word Word juxtaposed with another word.\u00a0 Word Kaleidoscope?\u00a0 Word Bag?\u00a0 Word Bar?\u00a0 How about Word Picnic?\u00a0 That comes the closest to what I’m thinking of.\u00a0 A project, whether\u00a0blog or journal, that, like a picnic basket I can fill with lots of scrumptious things, fine soft cheeses, a fresh baguette, wine, a tin of smoked sardines, fresh tomatoes and fruit, a flask of scotch, plus cleverly packed implements: plates, glasses, a corkscrew, utensils, salt and pepper shakers, tablecloth, cloth napkins.\u00a0 Maybe more.\u00a0 Then people can look into this basket and find sentences, hopefully good ones.\u00a0 And more: books I’m reading, poems I’m memorizing, reflections, ideas.<\/p>\n
I first thought of making it a blog.\u00a0 I considered a plain version, no photos or cleverness except with words.\u00a0 Since my job isn’t totally private, however (I work in the public sector), I needed to think through it.\u00a0 I liked the blog idea because it adds the public twist I know I’ll need to make this commitment stick, but maybe there’s another way, at least for now. \u00a0Here are the rules I set for the project:<\/p>\n
Project Rules<\/span><\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 I will use Google Sites.\u00a0 No blog for now.\u00a0 Not sure why.\u00a0 Just no.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0\u00a0 I am attempting to find a way to publicly commit to writing.\u00a0 Sort of a mini vow with a handful of witnesses.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I will write at least one good sentence per day.\u00a0 Like cleaning one small corner of a messy room.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I will not discuss any subject I wouldn\u2019t want to be associated with publicly.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I will discuss things I see, read, and experience except for\u00a0specific work-related or employer policies or practices.<\/p>\n 6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I will not, at least at first, make any effort to publicize the site.\u00a0\u00a0I’ll be held accountable by my\u00a0wife, my children, and possibly a nephew or three.\u00a0 I’ll give them access to it and let them read it or not as they choose.\u00a0 Just knowing they could is what matters.<\/p>\n Possible Names:<\/p>\n Word Picnic (bag, bar, kaleidoscope, smorgasbord)<\/p>\n Write Now<\/p>\n Daily Sentence<\/p>\n Memorizing Poems<\/p>\n Writers<\/p>\n Written<\/p>\n Writing<\/p>\n The Life Literary<\/p>\n The Sentence a Day Club<\/p>\n Sentence Per Day<\/p>\n 365 PY<\/p>\n 365 PA<\/p>\n Reluctant Writer<\/p>\n Wreluctant Riter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" August 28, 2009 Today I rushed to the Kennedy Center to get stuck there during a rain.\u00a0 Black clouds\u00a0sailed into view.\u00a0 Lightning flashed.\u00a0 The storm approached rapidly, but I made it ahead of the rain.\u00a0 Naughty fellow, rushing away from … Continue reading