Kung Fu Test

[sallytuppence]

A couple of years ago, when I was starting to get serious about writing, I realized that a lot of writers have other creative outlets in their lives. They do felting, or archery, or embroidery, or cartooning, or folk dancing, or making movies, or beading, or playing the recorder. Several very good writer friends are very serious about martial

Comments

[gregvaneekhout]

I swear, the very last web page I was on before reading your entry was a Kungfu Magazine interview with a Shaolin monk. He said this: In China, they don't just call martial arts "kung fu" - anything else they can say is "kung fu." If you've been driving a car for twenty years and never had an accident, that also means kung fu. It means you drive very well. It also means your experience. If you are like...anything - anything you did for a long time and really experience; like a doctor can also say that very good kung fu. In China, that's what they call this guy. That's what kung fu means.So, you are a student of Kung Fu piano. You are a student of Kung Fu writing, most definitely

[sallytuppence]

You hit exactly the thing I'm trying to figure out: how to integrate the two. I am not a musician. I love the piano though, and the things I have learned from playing the piano have everything to do with my writing. Maybe it's just in the striving.

[gregvaneekhout]

I think it's in the striving. It's in being passionate about playing the music. I think there's a lesson about writing in almost every one of your 23 points. Numbers 9 and 12 are particularly resonant.

[sallytuppence]

For me, it's #5 and #23.

I recently played a piece for my teacher and was sorta disappointed with myself because I'd made lots of mistakes. He said, "That was good, because you didn't hold anything back. Playing it safe is boring."

Boy, was that ever a revelation for me. Being fearless instead of safe is so risky, so scary, both in piano and in writing.

[squirrel_monkey]

Since Greg said clever things about martial arts, let me address bonsai training. I spent some time doing tree miniaturization, and some of the things I learned relate surprisingly well to writing. For example, do not be afraid to cut smaller branches and leaves. It will grow back. Also, if you train a branch or a trunk into a particular shape, you have to push hard but not so hard as to break the tree. A perfect whole can be achieved even if individual parts are not perfect; moreover, you never achieve a perfect whole if you concentrate on anything rather than the big picture. Each tree has a shape it wants to grow into; improve the innate shape but do not force an alien one.

Sorry to sound like a fortune cookie.

[sallytuppence]

This is so cool--it makes me think about stories having an inherent shape to them, and it's up to the writer to bring out that shape, that beauty.

[squirrel_monkey]

Thanks for writing this entry! It is so nice to think about connections between seemingly unrelated things.

And yes, the shape -- this is why I much prefer short stories. Their shape is easier to see, for me at least. And just like bonsai, they reflect a larger reality not by imitating it but by creating an *impression* of it. And I think it is useful to think of inherent shapes rather than trying to force the story into something you feel it ought to be. (Incidentally my biggest peeve with workshops is the tendency to force things into what they should be rather than what they are.) Ugh. Sorry if it's all muddled.

[gregvaneekhout]

Shape is absolutely a way in which I think of stories. Novels are more fractal, shapes within shapes, and I have a hard time seeing the overall form. But with short stories, I literalize the shape metaphor so much that sometimes I can almost feel the shape with my hands.

[jennreese]

Beautiful entry, Sarah. I could go on for so long about all the things I've learned -- and am still learning -- from martial arts, that I couldn't begin to touch on them here. I've learned a lot from songwriting and drawing and bookmaking, too, but I didn't pursue them with the same perseverence and so their lessons are more fleeting

[jennreese]

And hey! Good luck on your belt test this Saturday!!! Any chance you'll get a recording?

[sallytuppence]

Thanks for the luck! I'll try not to be too nervous, but to be in the moment.

Dunno about a recording. I'd like to have one, because the piano over there is an 8-foot grand, way, way nicer than my crummy piano at home. Can I record onto my iBook, do you know?

[gregvaneekhout]

Sure! The built-in mic isn't so great, but you can download a free program called Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/), open it up, hit the red recording button, and capture your performance.

[silk_noir]

Writing is pretty much the creative outlet I have. There are things I'd love to try, in all my spare time! (Switch on sarcasm.)

One thing, though, that I do, where I can make a connection, is weight lifting. With lifting, I can't dick around and fantasize (only allowed when I'm not in the gym). With lifting, it is counterproductive to envy other people. One must compare one's self only to one's self and not worry about what Buffatina and Hunkroid are doing over there at the bench press. With lifting, I have to plan, be cool, composed, put ego away; be smooth, focused, and never tell myself "it can't be done."

Weight lifting is much easier than writing. :D

[sallytuppence]

Sometimes, writing is weight lifting...

I can totally see how lifting could be zen.

[charmingbillie]

Great post, Sarah! This is what dog training is for me. It's where I learned all about striving because, you know, I had to. You get Rottweilers, you can't be making mistakes about how to live with them or how to live in the world with them. And what I love about dog training most is it's all about communicating with aliens--and relationships--it's totally girl cooties all over the place

[sallytuppence]

This is great stuff! #10 is absolutely key. Also #5.

Half of success at any endeavor, I'm convinced, is having the confidence that you can succeed.