{"id":3280,"date":"2012-06-08T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/?p=3280"},"modified":"2012-06-08T06:00:52","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T11:00:52","slug":"get-out-of-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/?p=3280","title":{"rendered":"Get Out of the House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
To the Moon, Alice! (Image from NASA, obviously.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Us writerly-types like to hole up with a keyboard and bang away at a story. It\u2019s the rare genius who can do only that and be successful.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my experience that a number of writerly-types aren\u2019t terribly social people, either. This isn\u2019t necessarily good or bad nor is it something that should be worried about. Some of the best writers all over the world aren\u2019t\u00a0 really social, don\u2019t understand how best to interact in real life but can write about relationships like no one\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

Observation is the key, I think.<\/p>\n

Having just watched HBO\u2019s Hemingway & Gellhorn<\/a> (which may be my favorite role of Nicole Kidman\u2019s and one of my least favorite of Clive Owen\u2019s) it can be unequivocally said that getting out of the house is the best way to inform your writing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(As an aside, I recommend watching Hemingway & Gellhorn<\/em> for the fact that the writer\u2019s experience is excellently portrayed and Owen nails Hemingway for the complete bastard that he was which is why it\u2019s among my least favorite roles of his. I\u2019d love to see HBO do a Graham Greene biopic someday but that\u2019s just wishful thinking on my part. Anyway.)<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019m not a war correspondent, nor actually a reporter of any kind, I have to get out of the house in different ways.<\/p>\n

I attended a reading and signing in town recently and met up with a writer friend, an artist friend and two others who I knew in passing an another friend was going to join us later. I\u2019m in a different line of work for my day job than they are so most of my evening was spent just listening to their stories and laughing and drinking. But at the same time, I\u2019m watching everyone around us at the bookstore and at the restaurant. There are conversations to be overheard and filed away for later use and that\u2019s a great way to inform one\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n

Additionally, exercise is great for lubricating the brainbox, too. Again, getting out of the house is best whether it\u2019s heading off to a gym, a class or just talking a long walk.<\/p>\n

Every week my wife and I are at a greenhouse or one of the home stores looking at anything that might be great for the house. Everywhere I go, (not just the greenhouses) I\u2019m looking at everything: colors, architecture, negative spaces, decorating choices. I take in the sounds and the smells. Touching something helps, too, although tasting things is tricky. (Some places frown on you licking things seemingly at random. One must be surreptitious.) Really it\u2019s just being out of my everyday environment and being willing to be open to the entire experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to be social on the internet. There\u2019s\u00a0 a kind of bravery to being out of range whether on Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr or About.Me and being able to unfollow or unfriend someone who doesn\u2019t agree with you. However it\u2019s a poor writer who\u2019ll do that. A writer has to be open to the entirety of life in order to be a good writer. You have to encourage people to think you’re a good person and that you do indeed care what they think about your work.<\/p>\n

So, maybe I\u2019ll see you around out in the world. I hope so. Don\u2019t hesitate to come up and introduce yourself or say hi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Us writerly-types like to hole up with a keyboard and bang away at a story. It\u2019s the rare genius who can do only that and be successful. It\u2019s my experience that a number of writerly-types aren\u2019t terribly social people, either. This isn\u2019t necessarily good or bad nor is it something that should be worried about. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[365,1028],"class_list":["post-3280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-influence","tag-exercise","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}