diary 3

things I'm thinking about this week: pyro kitten, productivity hack

1.

On Saturday, we had the first fire of the season in our wood stove. It wasn’t really cold enough, but we wanted to. J kept checking the weather on a rainy night, saying, “As soon as it’s a degree under 50 I’m going for it.”

I was excited to see what the cats would think of it, having never seen fire before. During my residency at the Dobie Ranch, I discovered that my cat Nellie Belle had an immediate affinity for fire. She would sack out on the rug in front of the hearth, narcotically contented as I checked her back to make sure she wasn’t getting too hot.

Falcor looked at the fire from afar and then curled up on the couch. Fair enough—at age 18, very little surprises him. Hexie was afraid of the sound, but gradually she got closer and closer. She wouldn’t lay in front of it either, but she stared into the flames long enough to make J ask, “Do you think she’s a pyro?”

Nellie Belle doing her writing residency at the Dobie Ranch, 12/15/20. Rest in peace, babygirl.

2.

I have some things to say about this essay, “On the Cult of Craftism”, which you’ll see right here later this week (or maybe sooner, depending on how many episodes of Nashville I’m desperate to watch). One one hand, I think it does a good job of pointing out when “beautiful writing” is essentially a membrane you have to push through to get to the actual story. On the other hand, I think “beautiful writing” can be exactly what’s called for if the character’s point of view warrants it. Honestly. Point of view means that there’s a coherent organizing principle in a story—and the coherence includes the writing style. There’s no point in denigrating one flavor of prose over another. Nothing is ever off the table, so long as it serves to render the character’s consciousness.

Unless you’re a writer for House of the Dragon, in which case: Having two characters 1) be twins 2) lack any identifying features like scars or 3) have sonically identical names like Arryk and Erryk is absolutely off the table, what the fuck is wrong with you.