t.r. & rory ask their friends what writing feels like to them, with no further prompting
movies: scenes playing out, both inside & outside the character's head
music, composition: attuned (self-)listening from the writer
math: arranging all syntactic components (=vehicles of meaning) in as succinct/direct a manner as possible + incorporating nonlinguistic symbols as guides of meaning & instructors of function (e.g. omission of words (through/with parentheses) + incorporation of slashes + plus signs– deliberate taking away & adding of things to influence/control the final outcome of the piece (tone + atmosphere + structure + form))
architecture: the building-narrative must function, must not collapse (in on itself), all rooms make up one floor, all floors make up one building
gardening
photography: (re)framing reality; film: there are scenes to be directed— perform, guide performance
a puzzle, a problem, something to be solved. the writer tries to *figure out* a person (self //+ character) or a situation, & fills in the missing pieces.
choral/orchestral music: different textures, dissonance etc. added to evoke certain emotions in (sonically?) rich/complex layers
opening a door you don't belong inside of. door: writing about/of people's interactions; stories that existed before the reader (sense:time, limited understanding of context), but also exist before the reader (sense:place); not belonging: like an intrusion, halfway
nonfiction → problem solving: putting legos together, making sense
fiction → painting ∵ wanting to add visual components
seashell/ building a fort: indulgent writing (for self) → temporary residence— writer might leave; nonetheless needs writer’s construction
release/ breathing (exercises): breathing exercises in band: breathing out, for as long as possible, through a tiny hole between lips
(lit criticism) assembling a puzzle
painting; always an emotional thing
screaming/release
block of ice with relic of truth/meaning frozen inside: relic is precise, tangible; writer must intuitively & carefully pick & shear away every bit of ice to get the relic perfectly intact; cannot scratch or chip the relic at all— a single scrape= failure
biting into a part of mind & chewing: what is written, how it is written depends on how her brain tastes that day
a shadow fight: have to fight self to lay out/present the work exactly how it felt in mind + deletion, difference from initial expectations; fighting self for laziness
digging: digging ideas out of/ from mind; sometimes, location of ore is known; usually, a constant search
(jokingly) death
way of survival & proof of life: "the only thing i know how to do"
proof of existence, some of it pain
architecture: creating a structure; everything needs to build + stand on each other
dreaming: writing feels metaphysical
hand-stitching: process → accumulation of lines/words/phrases that start out separate but feel important to each other; drafting → mending & patching up collected scraps of poem-fabric