Comments on: The Examined Life

By: Jennifer Gwirtz

Jennifer Gwirtz — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:42:31 +0000

This is why I enjoy your books so much. The struggles are honest and clearly yours within each character.

Choreography is also a way to work things out, get beyond them and get some kind of perspective. As far as I know, all good theater does the same. So does visual art.

By: Denise

Denise — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:33:50 +0000

I have not written yet, but I journal. Cheap notebook & pen that gets the job done. Putting it down on paper for me is the best. I was in a rollover in cruise at 70 mph & ended up upright. The cows in the field whos fence I was facing but didnt destroy were so curious. Writing that was really important.

My characters exist, just not yet on paper and I know them better then anyone else. Important if I ever write.

Your blog is the greatest. So many things to think about and appreciate.

I got my boss into the first Dante book & she finished in in 4 days and asked for the name of the second.

By: Marie

Marie — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:56:40 +0000

I’ve been reading your blog for over a year now…and I know you mentioned earlier that sometimes you feel like you’re shouting down a well.
I hear you, loud and clear.
I sketch- no, never finsihed anything, but it is my form of release. For years upon years, I kept everything inside- through sketching and writing, I am learning to get it out, that it’s perfectly fine to go through and experiance emotions.
Long story short- your blog enteries help me think about my own life, my own situations and help give me strength and courage to endure them a little bit easier. I re-read a few of them when I feel like I’m going to break, that there’s nowhere to turn, no one to talk with.
So thank you, Lilli, for everything. For every single blog you post and everything you talk about….I hear you loud and clear.
Thank you many times over.

By: dream_labyrinth

dream_labyrinth — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:30:16 +0000

I sometimes think of my own actions in lines from books, transforming day-to-day things into something one might read.
It’s a way for me of looking at what I do and kind of evaluating it, stepping back and looking at myself. It has helped me to learn more about myself, especially as it has helped me to estimate other people’s reactions and possible reasons why they do what they do.
Sometimes, words fail me, and I have a little book that contains not only the sort of poetry I write to deal with things, but also a few drawings. I’m by no means an artist, just as I am far from a writer, but it helps me to concentrate my emotions, pour them into a petri dish for further examination, so to speak.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:15:54 +0000

I think it does help to work that stuff in. Besides, it makes for a better story, which is always good.

By: tanya

tanya — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:52:46 +0000

thank you

By: AJ Church

AJ Church — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:20:20 +0000

Writing has always been more of a form of therapy for me than anything else. If I never sold a thing, it would have accomplished what I needed it to–keep me sane in an insane and often unjust world. And growing up as a shy military brat always on the move, my characters were often my best friends. To this day I often walk around with multiple characters’ voices running dialogue in my head. Oops – did I say that out loud?

It’s great when you can use that as a source of strength. More than once I’ve found myself in an unfamiliar or tricky situation and stopped to wonder what A or B would do in this situation, then reacted accordingly. Guess all writers are slightly schizo in that regard. If “normal” people could hear half of what goes on in my head, I’d be living in a rubber room.

By: Pastorbear

Pastorbear — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:18:35 +0000

I completely agree with the different parts all observing and reacting at once. I wrote about that when my son died — and I had similar parts “talking” and one was just screaming, no words, just screaming. That experience has been such a wealth of info for writing.

This was a great post. Thanks for sharing it!