Make

What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? 


Well if this prompt doesn't bring to mind my more creative friends, C. and C.! It also reminds me how my brother once said to me, during my junior or senior year of undergrad, "You sure are less creative and artistic than you used to be." Initially, I was offended, but he was absolutely right. I have lost the desire to hold on to scraps and merge them into something new. Well, not entirely... I still have collaging materials in a shoebox in my bedroom, waiting, waiting, waiting to be made into something great and beautiful. Collaging really appeals to me, always has. I wonder why? I like incorporating words with images too. Complete and utter synergy! The marriage of images and words! What more could a literary artist want??? (Reminds me also of the books Austerlitz and Our America, both chapter books which incorporate images. Awesome.)


OK, I need to control myself. I could go on and on saying, "That reminds me of..." Back to the prompt at hand! A few things come to mind that I want to talk about having made. In March, I made a Wordle / Poem framed gift for one of my aunts. I used a computer, my friend Joy's prowess on Macs (to use the Grab program to capture the Wordle image and convert it into a .jpg file, so I could print it in color at FedEx), the Wordle.net website, and a two-slot picture frame to put it all together. Oh yeah, and some tape to secure it, plus the packaging stuff. Joy's help in assembling this craft was 50% of the fun. I need to clear time to make a similar one for my other aunt. However, I want to shake it up somehow and vary hers, so the gifts aren't identical. I've had her in mind for at least 6 months. I made her one already, but it doesn't do her justice, so I need to regroup and re-create. As my friend Crystal has said, it's never a bad idea to start from scratch again, and not re-use something you're not crazy about. She was referring to my personal statement for a grad school application.


Actually, maybe I should say that was my most recent creation, my re-vamped personal statement. For that, my materials were: the comfortable environment of T's apartment (heated, with his intermittent input and the motivation his company provides); Marvin Gaye lyrics (and therefore, the cultural capital my dad gave me by introducing this music to me in the first place); my computer; the gift of e-editing given by a former professor and former classmate; and spacious, soothing evening hours, away from work and without the specter of other encroaching deadlines, etc. That was a very positive experience, the creation of that personal statement. I love it, whereas the prior one I wrote was as flat as 3-day old RC Cola that came in a 2-liter plastic container and was left out in the cold garage and forgotten.


Another recent creation of mine was a collection of my own writing, which I compiled as a gift. That was fun. Maybe someday I will really get to see some of my writing published in a book. Wow, that day would be 100% bliss. So if that's the next thing I want to make, I definitely need to clear some time for it. I need to undertake the kind of discipline and devotion published writers exercise, where they say, "6 a.m. till 11 a.m. is my writing time, every day, no matter what, no matter how in or out of touch with my muse I feel, I will produce writing between those hours, uninterrupted by errands, relationships, to-do's, the Internet and its infinite researching abilities, whatever else... I already know what I want my first book to be about. I've wanted to do this for the longest time, since I was a sophomore in college. Why is it so long in coming? Why do I backburner it (yes, that's a verb) so much??? There must be an underlying lack of confidence or intimidation at the publishing process or something that makes me believe it's a waste of time to try.