Spark

[susanstinson]

Here's something I wrote in a recent article in Lambda Book Report on fat and the word:

Internet gathering places such as livejournal.com with its interactive networks of personal blogs linked by relationships or interests create sites for frequent intense or casual communication, regardless of geography, and many of these writers can be found there. There are plenty of to-do lists and casual chatter, but the writing in these journals can take on sudden power and depth, and one beautifully written piece can spark a firestorm of response. "It's very trippy," Piasecki said. "I sort of look at it like a large, collective performance art piece."

I'll let the lj writer I was quoting self-identify if she chooses, but what about the rest of you?
Do you draw on lj as source for your thinking, writing or art in other media?
Are you using it to build something? If you are, then can you articulate what?
Does it influence your life in other ways?
Is the collective element important to you?
What are its gifts?

Comments

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

I can't even begin to describe how much LJ has done for me. I've met the most amazing support group...fallen in love...found a venue to explore my abuse issues...discovered that a wide variety of people enjoy my writing, which encouraged me to write more...started a book that I never thought I'd write...

LJ has introduced me to concepts I'd never explored, whole communities of people I didn't know existed, and new ways of looking at the world. In many ways I think it's the Internet at its best, with the free and open exchange of information that the 'Net's creators originally intended. Not that there's not a lot of dreck, but that can be said of any medium.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Wow -- that's a big list of gifts, for sure. Thank you.

[thewindrose.livejournal.com]

I agree with a lot of what copperwise said. Live Journal has been really wonderful for me. I have met so many interesting people, so many who come from completely different worlds than my own. It's really been enlightening and enriching. I have been so fortunate to have such amazing writers on my friends list that have helped me grow in so many ways.

It has also been absolutely fantastic for my creative side. I find that if I can write regularly, even just a little, it gets my brain fired up and the synapses firing. I've been doing some new fiction writing - and I haven't tried to tackle that for years. It's been a great tool for me to tell my stories and let out some of the things that are boiling up inside me, that I just can't discuss anywhere else freely.

I think Live Journal is what you make of it. I know there is a fair amount of trash out there, but if you choose your friends wisely (just like in real life) it can be a very rewarding and exciting experience.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I love hearing that lj is nurturing the urge and practice of writing fiction in people. Reading and writing fiction is something I care a lot about, and I haven't been sure what role lj might play in relation to that.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Do you draw on lj as source for your thinking, writing or art in other media?

Yes. I will often post to LJ if I'm thinking about something and can't get a handle on it.

Are you using it to build something? If you are, then can you articulate what?

A great deal of what I do is in the service of building community (very broadly interpreted). There's no doubt that LJ is part of that for me. (There are also ways LJ interferes with building community, but that's a different post.)

Does it influence your life in other ways?

I think it changes who I feel in touch with and how much. It certainly changes what I know about people's lives.

Is the collective element important to you?

What else would keep someone using a site like LJ? It would be of no interest to me whatsoever if it wasn't creating a range of collective interactions.

What are its gifts?

The ability to see how differently people use their journals. The ability to have a range of communications from the mundane to the intimate. The ability to be in touch with a whole range of people all of whom get to set their own terms -- to a significant extent -- for the conversational level, frequency, and topics. More, I'm sure, but those will do.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You've articulated a lot of what I value of lj, too. One difference for me is that I don't often use it when I'm thinking about something that I can't get a handle on (although, at least to an extent, I'm of using it that way right now.) Part of that may be because I know that many different parts of my life come together here, and that almost every part of it could be here at any given time. Trying to be careful and respectful are things that I cultivate, part of my nature, but, I don't know, seems to me that there is also an inherent kind of controlled recklessness in art that I love, too, that doesn't happen for me here. Forgive me for straying so far from your comment -- I'm thinking aloud.

[anarqueso.livejournal.com]

LJ's been good for me. It's a sort of semi-mythical ear/community. Sort of real, sort of imagined. I've met some great people here, read a few mind-bursting things. We keep track of each other. Gossip in friendly and not-so-friendly ways, get crushes, occasionally visit or send mail. Most importantly to me, I've fired up some dormant creative stuff. I hadn't written anything in years. I felt that aside from being funny, I had abandoned my creativity.

Of course, 99% of LJ is pure shit and/or written in Cyrillic, but I think I've got a good chunk of the 1% on my friends list.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I love your lj. You seem both playful and very serious in it, and present. That alphabet streak you just did felt sustained and crafted, in such concentrated bursts. I used to see a small magazine called Paragraph around -- wonder if they're still publishing. Or maybe Hanging Loose, or that idea of doing a graphic novel kind of illustrated version of the whole series and just put it out yourself (or explore those worlds, which I don't know anything about.)

Glad that you've got it fired up.

[anarqueso.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Susan. I'm always flattered when I get props from you. Last night I was at a party at Heather MacAllister's house and everyone was saying great things about you, by the way.

I appreciate your positive words, and I'll consider doing something with the alphabet series, but I have a terrible time knowing how to read and edit my own words. So I tend to mostly ignore them once they've fallen out of my hands or mouth. Plus, I know nothing about the mechanations of publishery.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

That's so nice to know that folks at Heather's were speaking well of me -- thanks for telling me.

Making a relationship with editing your own work is definitely an acquired skill -- one way to get a handle on it is to join a writers' group (one with good practices about careful, honest, respectful critiquing -- good guidelines that can be evoked if needed help, says me), and hone your own skills on others people's work and also check your reactions to your own writing against what (often fickle and wrong, but still useful) the group says. If nothing else, it provides a structure and a moment of directing your attention back to writing. But you're already getting a fair amount of response on lj, and my first impulse (without going back to look at them) is that the alphabet pieces felt pretty done to me -- you could push the subject matter in all sorts of ways in other forms -- but the chunks themselves have a energy and their own weird cohesiveness. Also, what do I know, but my impression from lj is you already know other folks who are doing interesting writing and art and providing each other with a context for that -- so one idea would be to maybe make that a little more directed and structured if you and others want to, and see if that's useful for everybody. (I'm a also a big fan of things like writing groups with an eight week commitment and then a week off, so that there is a built in time for folks to decide without drama if they want to sign on for another eight weeks, or if they'd rather do something else for a while.)

Editing is fabulous, in the long run -- grueling, but so delicious when you finally get something working and shining that was stubbornly off. And it's mysterious and sensual, like touching the holes in swiss cheese that you have no interest in eating -- it's not so much about hunger as about form, skewed perfectionism, wonder, sensation and all.

Publishery -- that's a whole other ball of wax. It's not so hard to figure out the basics, but it's unpredictable and (unless you're wildly lucky) often a mixed experience. But, basically, you just need to read stuff until you find a few magazines you like (to improve the odds, one that's utterly fabulous and maybe a big deal, plus a couple that are wonderful and you feel an affinity to, but which maybe aren't famous or commercial), then send a few pieces with a very short cover letter (listing past publication credits, if you have them, or a specific, true -- not faked -- reason you like the magazine and want to publish there), and repeat as needed -- which usually a lot.

Poets and Writers Magazine (easy to find on google) is one place to begin to look around.

I know you know a lot of folks who can talk to you about do-it-yourself publishing, which can be strange and lovely, too -- and odd, frustrating, hard, all of it.

[coffeeinhell.livejournal.com]

The things I get out of LJ are, first of all, a sense of connection with others (I'm a solitary person for the most part and something of an intellectual snob -- here, I can have "friends" on my own terms, choose folks whose minds intrigue me, and interact with them at my own pleasure) and, secondly, inspiration. Many of the people I read are writers. The fact that they struggle makes me feel better. When they succeed, it gives me hope. When they have trouble paying their bills, I feel like less of a loser. *grin*

Although I've met almost none opf the people on my friends list, LJ makes me feel less lonely. There are others out there, people who share my interests, fears and goals. I need to know that, because I tend to live so much inside my own head so much of the time.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Yes the sense of connection, and the glimpses into other worlds -- so many writers! -- that's strong for me, too. Sometimes it can encourage me to neglect the physical world a bit, and that piece of it, myself, I resist. It's that thing Kurt Vonnegut wrote about what an incredible blast of sensation and information and fullness he gets from licking a manila envelope and taking it to the post office -- I love the post office, too (although I know it can be so tough to work there), for its human interactions and the way walking to it draws me into the air, over the sidewalk, all that.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

well, I've talked to you about this but I'll say it for the record. I started LJ as a way to write regularly. The idea was just to write anything because I'd only recently started writing articles for a newsletter after not really writing anything for a decade or so.

I do feel like LJ is starting to hinder my artistic growth though. I feel like I've done what I can here, tightened up my writing style and gotten into the habit of writing. Like anywhere, LJ has a format and since I figured out how to write for it, I could go on writing popular little entries forever. And I probably will because I like it and I like the connection with other people I get here. I did a one-off paper zine a few years ago and thought it was great that I made about 400 copies and a few thought out letter in return. But the comments and immediate reaction to my writing on LJ are both incredible and scarily addictive.

But I will probably take less LJ time in the future so I can work on a novel I (very roughly) outlined over the last couple of weeks. Lj is great, but there's an attention span limit on entries that I want to surpass.

I have met a lot of great people through here and some are now real life friends. that's a pretty great gift. And I agree that if it wasn't collective in some way, I really wouldn't be interested. I'm not interested in the non-collective blogger world for that reason. The gender difference between that world and LJ is really obvious too. I certainly think it's socially constructed, not naturalistic, for the record, but it's much more comfortable and supportive over here.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Oh, a novel. That's one of my favorite ambitions, a very beautiful, difficult thing. I'm so glad to hear that you're taking that on -- it's bound to be an interesting effort, whatever happens.

I know what you mean about the immediate reaction to writing, and how powerful that is, in ways that are great and ways that can divert the impulse to take bigger chances, sustain longer, more complicated work, to even just allow the gaps and internal -- or at least, relatively private -- struggles that leave room for -- what? -- more polished, more structured, more patient, more demanding forms of story-telling. Or something. I'm trying to find ways to manage the balance, myself, and it means some pulling back on lj, if only to make room in my head for emptiness, for what comes next.

And, yeah, you've definitely got this form down. It's so interesting -- the relationship between writing and being read on paper, and writing and being read here, and then, for you, maybe also music, yes? -- as a committed participant, a listener, part of a band, part of a scene, all of that. Those lines between media, and between creation and presentation, and the way people hear things into being, in the ways, for instance, that the women-in-print movement created the possibility for my books to be written, let alone published, and then the individual quirkiness and inconsistencies and pressures and just force of desire and abstract love of language and all the rest of that, what a wild dance it really is to write.

Hope that it stays both a pleasure and something hard, something that pushes you. I want that, more, with more effort and more openess and work and patience, for me, too, always.