Ask the Author: Chris Zehetleitner
Answered Questions (3)
Chris Zehetleitner
One word: Noticing.
As Verlyn Klinkenborg describes it:
“So what is noticing?
A pinpoint of awareness,
The detail that stand out among all the details.
It’s catching your sleeve on the thorn of the thing you
notice
And paying attention as you free yourself…
“What do you notice? Whatever you notice.
Behavior, thought, overheard words, light, resemblance,
Emotion, totality, particularity,
Whatever you find in the habitat of your perceptions,
Anything, no matter how minute,
Whether you’re working or reading or taking the
subway.
The pattern is particular to you,
An element in what gets construed as ‘style.'”
---
“What you notice has no meaning.
Be sure to assign it none.
It doesn’t represent or symbolize
Or belong to some world theory allegory of perception.
Don’t put words to it.
And don’t collect it. Let it slip away.
Be patience for the next thing you notice.
“There’s always an urge among writers
To turn fleeting observations and momentary glimpses
Into metaphors and “material” as quickly as possible,
As if every perception ended in a trope,
As if the writer were a dynamo
Turning the world into words.
The goal is the opposite:
To get your words, your phrases,
As close as you can to the solidity,
The materiality of the world you’re noticing.”
As Verlyn Klinkenborg describes it:
“So what is noticing?
A pinpoint of awareness,
The detail that stand out among all the details.
It’s catching your sleeve on the thorn of the thing you
notice
And paying attention as you free yourself…
“What do you notice? Whatever you notice.
Behavior, thought, overheard words, light, resemblance,
Emotion, totality, particularity,
Whatever you find in the habitat of your perceptions,
Anything, no matter how minute,
Whether you’re working or reading or taking the
subway.
The pattern is particular to you,
An element in what gets construed as ‘style.'”
---
“What you notice has no meaning.
Be sure to assign it none.
It doesn’t represent or symbolize
Or belong to some world theory allegory of perception.
Don’t put words to it.
And don’t collect it. Let it slip away.
Be patience for the next thing you notice.
“There’s always an urge among writers
To turn fleeting observations and momentary glimpses
Into metaphors and “material” as quickly as possible,
As if every perception ended in a trope,
As if the writer were a dynamo
Turning the world into words.
The goal is the opposite:
To get your words, your phrases,
As close as you can to the solidity,
The materiality of the world you’re noticing.”
Chris Zehetleitner
The German Translation of "Runhundred", a handful of essays about running and some random ideas that might eventually turn into my second book project.
Chris Zehetleitner
There is no such thing as writer's block. But there's resistance.
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