Landmark Education<\/a> were largely about learning to take ownership of your internal storytelling and approach things without the added weight of prejudgement (as much as this is possible).<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFurther to this, I’ve also been reading Poetry, Language, Thought<\/em> by Martin Heidegger, his extremely gristly book of philosophy about the way language colours our experience.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nContradictions, character arcs<\/em> — Much of the material in this book was like seeing a magician put a handkerchief over a glass of milk, lift it with a flourish, and — hey, presto!<\/em> — a glass of milk. I learned so much <\/em>about story structure and character from reading John Vorhaus’s books on the subject, particularly The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You’re Not<\/em>. Even though it’s (as you may have gathered) about writing comedy, that book is a lot more fun and contains all the magic a writer needs for creating stories about people who do things and are changed by the experience. I haven’t been able to watch movies the same way since reading it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nSo I read faster and faster through this archetypes book until I found myself skimming, skipping chunks at a time. By the end, I had a real appreciation for the life I’ve lived, which has happened to lead me to all the things I need to know to do what I’m doing (or I led myself to them, or both). Talking to Patrick at home this evening, he said, “It’s sounds like the book was valuable because it gave you permission to do what you’re already doing.” And there is some value to that.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
So I left the cafe, donated the book to the “Peace and Justice Centre” next door (perhaps it’s a bit esoteric for them, but they were grateful), and had some peanuts in a cemetary while looking at this headstone…<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Celtic](\"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-content\/uploads\/posts\/1026\/visiting-edinburgh0.jpg.webp\" "\\"Celtic")
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I sighed, finally stopping for a moment to relax. That book was a big part of the work I wanted to do on this break, and now it was done. My little Wizard of Oz<\/em> moment was the point of it (“But you already have the brain, the heart, and the courage”). Though I think there’s some more to the topic to be explored.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nMy subconscious does half or more of my writing for me. If I’m stuck on a section, I’ll leave it for a bit, then invariably have conversations or dreams, or see movies, hear songs, and something will fall into place. Or I’ll just sit and start mind-mapping the chapter out, asking myself questions, and things will pop out.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Thinking is strange. When I try to think out a problem, I can set up the conditions for finding a solution, but inevitably there’s a moment when the thought just bubbles up out of nowhere. I don’t actually do the work that creates that thought. It just happens<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAlong a similar vein, I have to remember with all these books that I’m reading (I’m in a voracious reading period again) that if I’m drawn to explore something, it already exists in me to some degree. So this woman’s program about working with characters to anchor them in archetypes (not limiting them to stereotypes, but seeing how they are moved by deeper human tendencies and patterns) ultimately didn’t fulfil on its promise. But what’s there for me to do is…<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Well, I went ahead and did it later in the afternoon. I went to a little “bubble tea” and noodle place near my house, had a carrot-apple-ginger juice, and outlined Chapter Seven of Finitude<\/em>. I sat and asked myself questions, from practical to structural to philosophical to comedic, and stuff just showed up.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nOf course, all this backstage talk about the process is very wanky. There’s a point where one has to just throw out all his hifalutin ideas about “the work” and just tell a damned story. But, strangely, doing all this thinking really helps me find the story — not as an academic exercise, but as a kind of forensics, finding the bits of myself and observations about the world that move me or that I find fun so I can put them on the page. I make no claim to my work being serious or having any particular merit this way or that, but these principles make it matter to me.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![\"William](\"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-content\/uploads\/posts\/1026\/visiting-edinburgh1.jpg.webp\" "\\"William")
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Before I went to the noodle place, I had a break at The National Gallery of Scotland, where I went to see their exhibit of William Blake’s etchings<\/a>. He’s someone whose name keeps coming up in things I’ve read, most notably because he, too, was a self-publisher.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nThe gallery had a collection of his etchings along with those of the people he inspired, but what struck me was how much better<\/em> they all were than him. Yes, the pieces may have been “after William Blake”, but the craft in their line quality and the skill at rendering human subjects was far superior to Blake’s. But we remember Blake. Funny.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nI had my dinner at the noodle shop, having a completed outline of Chapter Seven to start work on tomorrow. My work day was finished, and I was content. (And grateful, too, that I have the freedom to spend a day like this.) I ate a bowl of way-too-hot-and-spicy-noodles-in-broth while reading a beautifully-translated article about organic farming in Thailand. I paid and left, but stopped in at the grocery store for some juice. While I was there, I saw this:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-content\/uploads\/posts\/1026\/visiting-edinburgh2.jpg.webp\" "\\"A")
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What the holy hell is that?!<\/em> Cat-milk? Okay, either there’s a farm with lots of maids with very dainty fingers, or else people have taken to snatching kittens away from their mothers too early.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nThey’re just making stuff up to sell us now. One of my contacts at work, who lives in the States, told me about a drug she saw advertised for “restless leg syndrome”. Please! The solution is simple: stop playing music with such a good beat.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-content\/uploads\/posts\/1026\/visiting-edinburgh3.jpg.webp\")
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