Latest Journal Entry: November 7, 2009

[Note: I found this document on campus, forgotten by someone in Leach Theatre. I thought it was more interesting than the art appreciation class I was supposed to be paying attention to; I'm reposting it here for your enjoyment.]

A One Page Writing Course

Make your words strong and enduring.

Read out loud. Your own and other's work.

Absorb rhythms: music, speech, seasons, breathing, running, dancing, (Erra Pound said it: Music begins to atrophy when it gets too far from dance; poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music).

Cultivate writers that inspire you. (Move you to think, write, act). A couple of old ones and a couple of new ones. Walt Whitman speaks directly to American posts. Read "Song of the Open Road," if you've got the time.

Don't underestimate the obvious.

Keep your ears opened. Not an easy task.

Poetry = (Intellect / Music) + (Articulation / Feeling) X (Silence + Surprise)^2

"Eternity is in love with the productions of time" -- William Blake

Turn out the tube. Venture. Site quietly for sunset.

Hear posts read. Make a pilgrimage.

Have a note book/journal:

1. It gives a place for wandering ideas/insights to land.

2. A notebook will hold: lists, dreams, letters, tentative poems, reminders, faces, schemes, remembered words, drawing, inspiration, lottery tickets, lyrics, etc. It becomes a quarry and there is no external pressure to be "right" or profound. Self-censorship prevents the emergence of ideas. A notebook is a free space where anything written can be erased, modified, intensified, and pursued.

Let written pieces find their own form -- PLAY.

When the work itself begins to instruct you, know that you are on to something.

In general, rewrite as many times as you can possibly tolerate.

Sources: Impulse. Dreams (day and night). Insight. Outsight. Music. Movies. Conversation. History (personal-universal). Love. Pain. Spring. Stars. Trees. Birds. The Lake. Rivers. Parents. Dear Spirits. Children. Railroad Yards. Whatever catapults you into wanting/needing to get it said, and go forth.

Have an intriguing title. For a Hitchcock film: "The One Who Killed Me Was..."

LIMIT THE TOPIC. LIMIT THE TOPIC. LIMIT THE TOPIC

AVOID THE FOLLOWING

• Plot outlines
• Life
• Society
• Seems
• Interesting (Parenthetical Comments)
• Noah Webster
• There =/= their
• You are =/= your
• Ideal =/= idea

DO NOT AVOID THE FOLLOWING

• Concrete detail
• Specific examples
• Illustration by example of all ideas
• Originality
• Humor
• Your own insights

If "this" stands alone, it probably can't.

He said "The period and the comma always goes within the quotation marks.
"Always," he said.

Don't use a fancy font.

A conclusion is not a summary.

About Justin

Justin Voss is currently a Computer Science student at the Missouri University of Science & Technology (but not for long: graduation is this May).

Originally from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Justin has lived in three states, two foreign countries, and the US capitol.

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