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I often tell writers that good writing is about the balance of action and information. I’m also always telling writers about mimetic writing. The other day, with an editorial client, I thought of a great image that helped them conceptualize these ideas in a way that made sense.
Let’s say that we have a getaway car. It’s assumed that it will be used in a chase sequence, which is primarily action. Per the idea of mimetic writing, the narrative style of this passage should be quick and to the point, since we’re dealing with a scene that’s meant to move quickly.
Now think about a camera taking a picture of the getaway car in order to convey what it looks like to the reader. This camera can take amazing high resolution images, or it can take grainy “potato quality” shots like you’d find coming from a middle-of-the-line cell phone. In this case, a many-megabyte high resolution picture of the getaway car might be beautiful, but if we try to work with that picture or send it to someone (the reader), it’s going to be a huge attachment, it’ll take time to upload, and it’ll clog up their email bandwidth. (Unless they have fiber, in which case this analogy is useless!)
For the chase sequence, then, we’d be fine with a quick, grainy snapshot of the getaway car so that we can get on with the action and not get bogged down with information. Here the balance swings to action rather than information. If we’re establishing a very important setting, then the beautiful high res image is very appropriate, and the balance swings to information. The reader wants to know the delicate details, and you can dwell on them more, taking your time.
I hope this short but effective reminder helps you craft tight and effective prose as you start a new year of writing!
As expected my obsession with short and simple dresses has not subsided. So what am I to do? Start sewing, naturally! But I’m feeling a bit lazy, I despise setting in zippers and want relatively easy sewing projects. So I’ve rounded up some patterns (not vintage!) that seem to fit the bill. The above pattern is Simplicity 2360. It has the same feeling as the Sessun dress from my last post, particularly the yellow print on the left.
New Look, it seems, has a plethora of slip-over-your-head, no-zippers-to-install or buttonholes-to-make dresses and tunics. I think you have to use a bit more imagination here but I see the potential, can’t you?
New Look 6679.
New Look 6887.
New Look 6851.
New Look 6913.
I don’t have much in the way of fall/winter fabrics as I’m mostly a summer dress kind of girl. But I’m thinking of blacks, grays and navy blues; wool, fine wale cord, linen, super thin and soft denim…even voile or lawn in a dark color. Have any of you used one of these patterns? If so, let me know!
I’ll also do a round up of vintage patterns from my stash. I’ve got a bunch of a-line mini dresses from the ’60s that are really cute although a little more complicated in construction and probably have zippers. (Which is why I’m leaning more towards these new patterns - for now.)
Have a sweet Thursday!
The floors have been vacuumed of every speck of dust. Tabletops have reemerged from the remaining dregs of clutter. I schlepped bags and bags of stuff around the corner to the Goodwill and it felt like such a relief to finally not have it in my possession that I did a little dance in my clean hallway when I returned home.
There are a few things left to take care of, like dismantling the man-cave desk, and piecing together my new worktable and then rearranging some things as a result of the new workspace, and also tackling the out-of-dates in my refrigerator, but otherwise I almost feel like I live in a new space. The old apartment feels transformed, thanks in part to a new bathmat, a new duvet cover, and some nice storage containers, but also because of the reemergence of a subtle sense of more space in my home. It's subtle, but it's there.
I also feel kind of transformed by the whole experience--taking stock of what I have, reevaluating what I need in my life versus what I've been hoarding "just in case", take a closer look at those times when I'm lazy and tell myself "oh I'll clean it up later", and the trip down memory lane has made me feel the need to reconnect with the people in my life, past and present.
One thing is for certain: another clothes shopping boycott commences now! 7 bags indeed!
Yesterday was pretty productive. I finally started on laundry and cleaned every nook and cranny in my bathroom that I could reach. I also finished the purge of my closets which included unearthing a humungous box labeled "desk" that in the back of my mind I knew I had, but had readily forgotten as soon as I moved into my apartment four years ago. It's contents has been added to over the last 10+ years without ever purging and resulting in about 4 desks-worth of paper and photographs.
Highlights from Day 6:
- Palanka from 4 years of Search retreats in college, which include a lot of random inspirational quotes but also some incredibly deep and personal letters that I will treasure till my dying day. Such wonderful stuff. I was bawling as I re-read these, and really regret not keeping in better touch with my old high school and college friends.
- Old letters during my college years: different from the palanka but just as profound, and really got me thinking how the internet/email/facebook has taken away from the art of letter writing. Apparently my sophomore year in college I went on a letter-writing kick which prompted some wonderful letters in return. I'm thinking I need to revisit this lost art--especially with all that stationary I found in random places.
- I decided that Rubbermaid is not meant to be in plain sight, which involved some rearranging of storage and getting rid of some old things. All of which is resulting in a nicely edited and less cluttered look in my home. Achieving the goal of a home for everything! Yes!
- Discovered that the closets I do have are tremendously deep, which is so awesome I can't begin to describe the joy I feel in being able to move things out of sight! Not sure why I didn't realize this before, but unearthing the ungodly amount of junk I'd squirreled away in there has made me realize how big they are.
Ended the day crying my eyes out while reading old letters, but it felt good to reconnect with the past and to look to the future with a lighter load.
Boy I got a lot of stuff. I think I'm like my parents in that way. If they ever move out of their house, it'll take weeks to sort through their garage alone. Luckily I'm limited to a one bedroom apartment and have only so many places to stash stuff.
Highlights from Day 2:
- Rediscovered my Michelle Branch cd. Kept it. Whatever happened to her? Oh, she's country now. Huh.
- Rediscovered my Stitch n' Bitch book and other books after weeks of wondering what I'd done with it. I had put it in a tote that sits under my coffee table. In other words, it's been in plain sight for weeks.
- Found more letters and cards from friends, including a very precious one from my niece, Book Fiend, that reads "Dear Auntie [Yola], Thank you for taking me to the library. Love, [Book Fiend].
- Cleared off half of a bookcase. Once I dump my stockpile of Real Simple magazines, I'll have another shelf clear. Am planning to rearrange these to hold books and also baskets of my sewing supplies.
I now have a growing pile of stuff to purge from the house:
- A television
- A broken dvd player
- A broken laptop
- 4 grocery bags full of books
- 1 box of cds, and a few dvds
- 2 bags of shoes
- 4 handbags
- 1 box of assorted crap, including free-gift-with-purchase makeup bags, candle holders, scarves, a "mystical garden" that you grow salt crystals on, and a voo-doo doll (which includes an instruction manual and pins)
And I've satisfactorily recycled a buttload of paper scraps and about 5 years worth of shredding (at one point my shredder actually overheated and stopped working) and only thrown out a small bag of actual trash.
And then Mockingjay was delivered via AmazonTote and I was done for the day.
I spent the rest of the evening ensconced with book, but am back at it this morning, tackling the clothing. This afternoon I make a trip to Ikea to scope out a replacement for the man-cave desk and perhaps also a sideboard and new bathroom rugs.
It's been a productive, although leisurely, week so far. But since it's almost the weekend and I haven't even started the actual cleaning part yet, I need to pick up the pace so that I can actually enjoy the weekend too before heading back to work.
Today I started a major project: clean and purge and my apartment. Based on what I accomplished today, it's going to take a freakishly long time to take care of everything. BUT, I shall persevere! Today I started on my desk and my bookcases.
Highlights from Day 1:
- Discovered my SAT scores (620 Verbal and 580 Math) and my Driver's Ed final test (got a 90: drove too fast through turns, didn't look back during parallel parking, and stopped on the line instead of behind it at a stop sign).
- Unearthed several mixed tapes from my high school days (consisting mainly of Crowded House/Neil Finn songs), but also one tape of Tagalog songs
- Put tax forms and bank statements from the last 10 years into a shredding pile
- Kept letters from my former roommates and cousins in the folder where the tax forms used to be.
- Discovered I have a lot of stationary, but I don't write nearly as many letters as I used to; however, new goal is to put newly discovered stationary to use in the near future. Expect random haikus and letters from me shortly oh ye in far places!
- Paired cds and their cases, but was unable to match everything. I have 4 cds without cases and a dozen cases without cds. Boo-hoo!
- Discovered many shriveled insects in drawers, including a bee. Poor guys.
- Half of my cd collection is comprised of Crowded House, REM, The Posies, and U2 (or related bands and solo work).
- A quarter of my books, I haven't read, and most likely won't ever.
Goals for the rest of the week:
- Sort through cds, books, and clothing and get rid of half of it. Hopefully get some cash from some of it too.
- Replace my brother's man-cave desk with a more sewing machine-friendly worktable.
- Move my bookcases together.
- Deep clean everything, especially the kitchen and bathroom.
- Find a dedicated place for everything I own.
I heard an interview on NPR today with Irma Thomas, the Soul Queen of New Orleans, whose voice was selected as one of the fifty great voices. I recommend that you go to the NPR website to hear the interview so that you can hear her voice: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129345910
I was particularly struck by what she said about "getting fancy."
"I don't think my fan base [cares] about how many notes I can hit. They want me to sing the doggone song," she says. "If the song doesn't dictate adding all this other stuff to it, then why do it? Sure, I may be able to hit 15 notes in one bar, but is it gonna help the song? No."
As writers, there are times when we just know we have a wonderful turn of phrase, a great metaphor, a beautiful simile. And we can't wait to use it. And read it aloud to ourselves. And gloat about it.
But listen to Irma. Your audience doesn't care how many big words you can use, and how lovely your prose is, if it doesn't help the story.
I'm not saying that you can't have beautiful language in your writing. You can and you should. Just remember that the beautiful language needs to help the story. If it's not gonna help the song, leave it out.
Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost! It's a day--no, a whole season--for remembering that after Christ ascended, He did not leave us alone. He told the disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit to come, and when He came, He came in power with the sound of a mighty rushing wind. Before He ascended, Christ assured his disciples that they would do even greater works
So I've been fairly good so far in my quest to not be a consumerist pig and buy needless clothing and stuff to fill my closets. Good by my standards at least. I did in fact return the infamous trench coat after being completely wracked with guilt for not lasting 24 hours.
It's been about 6 weeks now, and I *have* purchased a few not completely necessary items: a lemon zester, a digital food scale, 4 books, a tube of cherry blossom lotion, 4 pieces of printed paper from the Paper Zone, a not-exactly-dirt-cheap-but-less-than-$8-so-it-was-really-really-really-hard-to-turn-it-down hat from BR (more on *why* I allowed myself *inside* of a clothing store in the first place later), and some fabric for projects. I know, for some of you, that's more than what you buy in a year, but for a girl who could go shopping once a week, it's not bad.
Let's examine these purchases in detail, shall we?
1)
Lemon Zester & Digital Food ScaleOkay, fine, yes I went to the most extreme of all shopping experiences: the Outlet Mall (on Labor Day weekend, horror of horrors). But only because I was headed north with some friends and they had some shopping to do (nevermind that I was the one who suggested it).
Two things I realized: 1) it's super hard for me to be within purchasing distance and not purchase. I was determined to not look at clothing. So I managed to convince myself that I had no means of grating citrus fruit and that my baking was suffering for it (and now that I've actually used that zester, whoa boy, I think it might actually be true). The digital scale was also on my culinary wishlist and it seemed like a good chance to score a deal on it. 2) there's really only one point of being at an Outlet Mall: buying. Putting yourself in the middle of that kind of zoo and not coming away with *something* is almost degrading. It's like fighting in a war and not getting at least *some* kind of recognition for laying your life on the line.
Can you feel the guilt yet?
2) 4 Books
I'm a librarian. And a bibliophile. And I've actually done pretty decently this year, mostly because I have awesome friends who showered me with awesome books for my birthday last year. That and I also have a
kickass public library that I pillage on a regular basis. However: a week spent in Bellingham with its many wonderful wonderful wonderful bookstores is too difficult to resist. I saw it as an opportunity to support small business owners and expand my own brainpower at the same time--a win-win situation: 1)
Slow Food by Carlo Petrini--basis of my current obsession with eating local, definitely a good thing;
Urban Walks: 23 Walks through Seattle's Parks and Neighborhoods--explore my city by foot, always a good thing;
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery--Paris + precocious tween = an interesting mix, which is also always a good thing;
Linen Wool Cotton by Akiko Mano--sewing in general is always a good thing. I feel absolutely no guilt in purchasing books, especially used ones, so I feel completely fine with this. All titles completely complement my book space (yes I have room) and my current interests, so my brain is happy.
However:
3) Cherry Blossom Lotion
*Total and complete* impulse buy. It smelled good and my hands were chapped at the time. Moving on.
4) 4 pieces of printed paper
This one is kind of an interesting one: I have a slowly dwindling stash of pretty paper products from when I was all gung-ho on papercrafting. I'm working through the stash, which is actually a pretty awesome feat. However, at some point, your creativity starts to fail you when you're working with the same old stuff. That pattern loses any inspiration for making an interesting shape. Or brown just doesn't cut it for you like it used to. Or do we really have to see the same 10 stamps over and over again? Creativity is a pretty important outlet for me, so needing to revive the stash was an acceptable reason to break out the cash. So while on my way to the grocery store to buy birthday cake ingredients, I also stopped by Paper Zone to buy pretty birthday card material. I bought 4 sheets of paper that will probably last me another 2 years, but will boost my creative spirit. Yay! No guilt!
5) not-exactly-dirt-cheap-but-less-than-$8-so-it-was-really-really-really-hard-to-turn-it-down Hat (in other words, complete and thorough guilt)
I completely blame my sister for this, even though she was not there in the flesh. Thursday nights my sister is often on her own as her husband has a regular get together with friends. Fairly often in the past, I'd get the call around 4:45--"what you doing after work?" "not much" "want to meet at U Village?" and off we'd go on our shopping excursion, a regular sister bonding time, which color?, can I pull off wearing ruffles here?, those jeans look really nice on you!, etc, etc. A grand time for all involved. Besides Anthropologie, Banana Republic is another favorite shopping stop.
So a Thursday night came and I found *I* was on my own. My cousin's birthday had come and gone and I had nothing for her. No ideas, absolutely empty handed. So what did I do? I fell back on the old trip to U Village, where I found myself saying, "you're getting something for M, not yourself." Except for that darned freakishly-cute-on-my-head beret. A beret! on my cute round head! And only $7.99 at Banana of all places! I had that same trenchcoat feeling of a total score for me, expert bargain finder! Before I could start to feel guilty I bought it, complete with the all-sales-final tag attached to it. See! I couldn't even return it if I wanted to!
See my cute head wearing this hat? This is what denial looks like.
(ps: I ended up making a super cute oilcloth lunch sac for my cousin using fabric from my stash. Yeah, I know.)
6) fabric for some projects
Fabric in my stash usually was purchased for a future project. I have a lot of future projects: baby blankets, summer dresses, brown-haired dolls, a stuffed doggie, placemats, chair cushions, patchwork skirts... But none of these were what I actually wanted to make for my sister in law: a Julia Child-style chef's apron with chickens on the pocket. Yes, with chickens. Because she wants to raise chickens, so it had to be chicken themed. And I had no chickens in my stash. In fact, I had no fabric big enough beside a couple of yards of blue flannel, to make a long apron. And flannel aprons are not quite the thing. So off to the fabric store I went. No guilt.
------
So believe it or not, I'm learning a lot about myself and in most ways, being more conscious of the stuff I buy and why I buy. I have some weak moments (hello cute hat!) and some creative logic going on, but I'm getting better. And as I told my sister today, one of the things I've learned about giving something up is to understand what you actually gain from that loss.
And so far I've gained a lot of insight into my bad habits, have found ways to fill my moments of boredom with more fulfilling and creative activities, have spent more time with people just talking and not shopping, and have found more satisfaction in the stuff that I do have.
So what with working out in the mornings, I find that I actually have to eat breakfast at home now, something I didn't normally do until I was sitting down at my desk at work and checking my email. To fuel my workout, I've been eating cereal, but have quickly gotten tired of that every single day. To mix it up, I decided to buy some bread and peanut butter to have toast in the mornings with my fruit.
At the grocery store, I wandered into the peanut butter aisle. And then began the dilemma. I've started reading about eating locally, and the health and environmental (and economic, I suppose) benefits of doing so. But here I am, wanting to buy peanut butter made from peanuts grown somewhere in the southeast, shipped somewhere to be turned into peanut butter, then put into jars that were made somewhere else, and then shipped to my grocery store. I can cut out the jar and peanut butter-making leg of it by grinding my peanut butter there in the bulk aisle. Okay, I can do that.
On to the bread aisle. I'm lucky in that there are a ton of fabulous bakeries in the city, so I feel like I'm still able to support local businesses. But where does the wheat flour come from? "Somewhere in the middle?" I ask myself. Or eastern Washington? I have absolutely no idea and realize that I really have no clue what grows here and what doesn't. When I'm at the farmer's market (where I try to shop more often, but didn't get to do this weekend), I feel pretty confident that I'm getting local foods and supporting local producers. But once I step into the grocery store, I'm a little lost. Maybe I should stop going to the grocery store and start heading to the local co-op, although PCC would probably be it, and there isn't one in the immediate neighborhood, I'd have to go to Fremont, which isn't that far, but not really within walking distance either.
I suppose when you live in the city, you have a lot of choices, and therefore more informed choices to make, which means I suppose I have quite a bit more self-educating to do. But I'm glad I'm thinking more about these choices I make, even if it means more time spent pondering in the aisles.
Here's my current reading list on eating locally and healthfully. Do you have any more suggestions?
Umm, okay, I only lasted about 24 hours on the whole no-shopping deal. I bought a trench coat (which I still feel guilty about, but was too good a deal to pass on), and new running shoes, because I was getting shin splints and needed more support in my shoes.
I thought it was going to be super easy to not go shopping, but I realize how ingrained it is in my daily thinking. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I think about shopping constantly. In the last 48 hours, I've gone online more times than I care to count to peruse items on various sites (Performance Bike to look at indoor trainers, REI because I got a 20% coupon, Macy's because I got another coupon, Anthropologie because it's just pretty); I've looked at catalogs (Pottery Barn--who knows why I receive that, Ikea, and Macy's) that have appeared in the mail more minutes than was wholly necessary. I was returning something at the store the other day, and I found myself wandering back to the sale racks where I spotted a coat marked down 75% from its usual exorbitant price--it fit and is wonderfully good looking on me, and I was wracked with guilt about scoring such a great deal and my resolve to have less.
I grew up in a household that pinched pennies a lot. I used to do the reduced price lunch at school. Whenever I wanted something--a game, a toy, a book--I had to beg and plead, pinch and save forever to afford that one small thing. I remember saving up to buy one of those pocket games that flip out of a case shaped like a cassette tape, with little magnet game pieces. I scrimped and saved and it felt so important when I finally had enough to go buy it, and then I loved it to death. I think my current obsession with buying books stems from the fact that I adored them as a kid, but could rarely afford them. Whenever we had those Scholastic book buying clubs where you would get a free poster if you bought so many books--I might be allowed to buy one or two, but never enough to get a free poster or whathaveyou. I had a few precious books with my name, many of them given as gifts, that I treasured beyond anything. I remember getting a fairytale book for Christmas when I was about 6 years old, and it scared the crap out of me because the illustrations were photos of cloth dolls acting out the stories, so they were *real* yet unreal (surreal I suppose). Yet I loved that thing because it was *mine*, and we never got rid of it (I think it's still languishing in my parents one bookcase somewhere). I went to friends' houses and saw their walls lined with bookcases overflowing with books and I felt like I was in a wonderland--oh the luxury of having your very own library in which books are never due back, and things are never checked out and are always available to you.
But because we were such penny pinchers, we were also huge bargain shoppers, and later in life it tipped the scale to the point that we continued to be bargain hunters and pack rats to boot. There is nothing more exciting than scoring that perfect deal--a wonderful find at half the price (or even less!). Pretty much everything I own was purchased on sale--including my couch, my television, my laptop, my winter coat--save for a pair of Danskos, and my eyeglasses (because those things never go on sale). Part of the fun of wearing cute clothes is being able to respond: "$7.95 on sale at The Rack!" and seeing the incredulity spread on the person's face followed by jealousy. Oh yes, I have the knack to score bargains, something my whole family seems to be quite proud of. "Only $0.99 a pound at the Base!" is my father's favorite news when we exclaim at the huge flat of strawberries in the refrigerator.
What was once a necessity is now a matter of pride, this bargain hunting. But it's translated into a small tide of extra stuff floating around in my life, a tide I'm trying to turn back, but realizing is harder to do than I thought. I suppose I ought to start by not going to the sale racks in the first place, so as to squash my guilt over finding a bargain but not taking advantage of it, before it can even happen. I need to replace my shopping habit with less cruft-accumulating activities, like music making, reading, biking, walking, and hanging out with friends.
*sigh* I'm still clinging to the recently purchased trench coat like it's my long lost child. My bargain and I were meant to find each other!
Is this addiction? Is this what it feels like to give up drugs? Like I'm going to miss out on wonderful things (namely super bargains) and be totally gypped when it comes time that I really *do* need a new coat?
I'll let you know next week, whether I return the coat or decide that it was fated to remain with me.
ps: the photo above is not the coat I bought, but it's similar in original price, color, and swoon-worthiness.
Yes! Super cute illustrations and animations from L.A.-based Hsinping Pan. Her simple, childlike drawings obviously reflect a pure love for drawing, and it shows. Everyone’s work should be so uninhibited and playful.
It's day four of my sitting back at my desk after having been away for several weeks to spend important time with friends and family. All the same bright stars are here - more of them, actually - doing incredibly diligent, insightful work with and for libraries and library staff. Through their work they create and support change for our profession, and it's good change too: another librarian signed up for their first RSS feed; another library with a completed technology plan.
Having been away, I admit that I find myself somewhat disconnected from some parts of the overall effort. Sure, I'm floating about, making various remarks, each accompanied by a CRH jest, smirk, or toss of the hair. Honestly, it hasn't been too terribly difficult to dive back into projects and conversations, do what I do, what some like to call "be Chrystie Hill." But behind all that - it's as if I'm watching myself from above - I feel as if I'm about to cross a new threshold, but I don't know what's exactly I'm crossing over into. (I can hear George,and Marilyn, and Clayton, and others saying as they read this "Don't do it Chrystie - walk away from the light!")
Not to worry. I'm not leaving library land, nor what I still claim to be the best job in library land. On the contrary, the threshold involves some new ... let's call it perspective, but that's not the right word ... clarity? ... about "what's important," and it really is very simple: at the end of the day we all should be able to say that we are working to change libraries so that they matter more. (Don't say we already matter. We don't matter enough.) As a profession, we should be of single mind on this (or something like it) and all of our efforts should map to a vision - call me Utopian - where all libraries are relevant and thriving.
At the very least, I know that's why I care about my job, and that's why I come to work every day. Being away reminded me of the simplicity of it, really, and I'm hoping I can stay clear on this as I immerse myself back into the details and the complexities of our work. (Ever the optimist; I know, I know.)
Hello Libraryland. It is great to be back.
I had the joy of seeing Anne Lamott speak last night at the Baghdad theater where she talked about her new book, Grace (Eventually), life and answered her own questions.
And while I don't consider myself religious so much as spiritual, many of things she had to say about learning to forgive resonated. It's hard not to envy, it's hard not to hold on to old gripes and it's hard not to talk yourself too seriously. It is not, however, hard to listen to someone who can make you laugh while being candid about the failings within us all.
Thank you, Anne, for sharing. And hank you, Powells, for giving me the chance for free. (Next time I'll have to get there earlier so I'm not in the last row, struggling to see over/around people's heads.)
I highly suggest checking out the book, and hopefully I'll get a chance to discuss it here with you. This post, however, will not be the place as I'm suffering from computer burnout today and desperately need to alleviative it by going outside.
So instead of intellectual discussion I give you proof that I did indeed grow from that small little thing with a book bag into something resembling an adult who can take a picture without always making a face. You can thank the Boss Lady for the photo and the clucks that led to its immediate posting.
The paleness is due to the fact that basement bookstores are the antithesis of sun-filled parks. Blah, blah, blah, something about direct sunlight hurting books and vampire salesgirls, blah, blah, blah...
Read the rest of this post
Yikes, I have a bag full of skirts and whatnot that's meant for you sitting on my bedroom floor - does that violate the shopping ban? I hope not.