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  1. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    How I cut myself writing

    Discussion in 'General Writing' started by JLT, Dec 17, 2017.

    An interesting thing happened just now.

    Hemingway once wrote: "“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Now I think I know what he meant.

    I wrote something on Facebook. Here it is, in its entirety.

    "It's a windy day today here in Sacramento. As I'm in the kitchen making my annual batch of Christmas cookies, I keep seeing the cat flap at the back door open and close, but there's no cat coming through.
    "I like to think that it's the ghosts of all the cats we've had that have shared their short lives with us, coming home for Christmas."

    It was intended as a bit of whimsy, but As I wrote it, it struck me how much it affected me, because it brought back memories of all the cats my wife and I had, and how we grieved for them when they died. I found myself breaking into tears. I hadn't realized, until I wrote it, how much it was going to cut me, and how much it would bleed. I don't think that this sort of thing has ever happened to me before.

    Maybe I'm just getting old and soft.
     
  2. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Not at all. I would call it wise and aware instead of old and soft.

    My mom wrote a good one awhile back (probably 15 years ago, now that I think about it) about "footprints in the snow." Basically she was musing about how when she looks out the window she doesn't see footprints in the snow anymore because her kids and all the neighborhood kids we grew up with have moved away. From there she launched into a commentary on how the old neighborhood used to be full of families but it is now mostly populated with aging baby-boomers and seasonal/university renters, which has led to an almost complete dearth of children. It got me then and gets me even more now as I enter my 40s and begin to realize old memories aren't always replaced by new ones.

    Damn... now I'm sad. Thanks a lot!
     

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