The stalking exercise was, as implied by the prompt questions, meant to practice/train/strengthen our abilities as writers. To become better writers there must be intentioned effort. To make the all too easy analogy, it's like athletic training. No one can expect to show up on the day of their sporting event without training and do well. As my high school soccer coach used to say "A marathon isn't won on the day of the race," quite obviously noting that the hours of practice leading up to the race were far more important than any measures that could be taken on race day. I'm kind of digging the bad sports movie vibe I've created thus far so I'll continue with some old adages and remembrances from the heyday of my amateur soccer career. One of the techniques being practiced with this writing exercise is to find inspiration. In the sport world this is equivalent to the pump-up speech. and I don't necessarily mean the one the coach gives a few minutes before the game, I mean the one that comes while the starters are huddled on the field and it usually goes along the lines of "These kids are ****ing ****s! Lets **** them up..." Without this inspiration and drive to play, acquired through whatever means, the game is bland and the writing is boring. To achieve this joga bonito ("beautiful play" or better explained by this video,)
we must all find it within our own hearts to gut out a little joy. It's the surge of the adrenaline, it's the burning idea, it's the imagination. And in writing it all starts with exercises such as the one we were assigned. The 'stalking' showed us that we can push our writing outside its normal limits and come out with something even better than before. It is useful in the sense that it forces us to write as we normally wouldn't. Sure, I wasn't exactly psyched when I read through what we had to do because it was harder than what we usually do, but hey, "the extra mile is a lonely place"
http://brad.bothsidesofthemouth.com/November/FFF/Ratatat%20-%20Loud%20Pipes.mp3
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While looking through your blog, this title immediately intrigued me. And while reading the entry, I was glad it did. You did such a great job of depicting the assignment in such a positive spotlight, that I wish we could perform it all over again. Your message throughout this blog is one that anyone can relate to anyone in any situation. Hard work is an essential personality trait in any goal-determined individual and after reading this, I was inspired. Not only were you able to show that persistency is necessary while performing writing assignments, but is also essential in life. In your first blog entry, I noticed that your ultimate goal was to say “something profound”. You have reached that goal in this blog entry.
ReplyDeletehahah i used to play for my high school team before as well and its so typical but true what they said to pump us up but in reality you pump yourself up. If theres anything that has stuck with me was that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it. Such a cliche but its cant be said any better. Life is boring unless you decide to go out and make it exciting. Part of it is self motivation to go out and practice "harder than you would at the day of the game" as my coach would yell at me. Couple of years ago when the joga bonito videos first came out i watched the brasilians do those crazy nice tricks i wish i could have done. Now, i can. :]
ReplyDeleteTom. I like your writing here. You are definitely on the right track. This blog post is both intriguing and clever. I have no real criticism for it. I do not think I could have done it better myself. GOOD JOB PAL : )
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