Comments on: How We Spend Our Days: Claire Vaye Watkins

By: cynthia

cynthia — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:03:46 +0000

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to leave such thoughtful comments. Here’s to a happy 2013 full of good reading and writing!

By: cydmadsen

cydmadsen — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 01:48:59 +0000

Like most who have commented, it’s the honesty of this piece that caught me off guard and helped me connect with it. Very nicely done. I especially appreciated your honesty about abandoning books. Let us hope we spend our days building Karma, that Karma is real, and we come back as speed readers to catch up on the frustrating stack of enticing books we never got to. Good Lord, looks as if I’m off to buy yet another book. Can’t resist after reading this.

By: KM Huber

KM Huber — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:54:50 +0000

It has all been said in either the post or in the comments about the post. How I spend my days from this moment on will not be quite the same, and for that, I am grateful. Now, off to read Battleborn; what a way to begin another year.

Karen

By: Claire

Claire — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:30:50 +0000

Thanks for reading, everybody. You make a great point, Amy, but I still think we ought to remember that the very difficulty of writing is a gift. Not to sound too much like my yoga teacher here, but the fact that I have time and capacity to sit and ask myself those difficult questions is a blessing. Not all struggle is pain, yeah?

By: How We Spend Our Days | Claire Vaye Watkins

How We Spend Our Days | Claire Vaye Watkins — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:03:18 +0000

[…] the first of each month, Catching Days hosts a guest writer in the series, “How We Spend Our Days.” Today, please welcome writer Claire Vaye Watkins: Today is a day in transit. This morning I […]

By: davemalone

davemalone — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 23:14:41 +0000

Jodi and Richard beat me to it…The honesty here is powerful and much appreciated. Loved the part about feeling envy at writers making something out of the day’s tedium.

By: amymwright

amymwright — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:23:35 +0000

I really love that phrase “Claire-adjacent” and your straight-talking style here. Great post.

Just now, though, I’m taking issue with Kardos’ advice. While it’s important not to get too self-glorifying about the difficulty of any one task, writing IS hard. Growing up on a farm, I understand some of the difficulty of physical labor vs. intellectual labor. It takes both. We can underestimate the value of unseen (inside, mental) effort–the kind that is fueled by emotion and spinach and sometimes doesn’t manifest for days and days or years. Think of the drafting process. I’d much rather plant corn or weed beans. And have. Than sit down and figure out some way to articulate what I’ve learned about myself in a way that others might benefit from it.

Thanks for the Annie Dillard quote too. A great reminder that it’s always now that we act, not in some faroff future place.

By: Richard Gilbert

Richard Gilbert — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:26:05 +0000

I admire and am encouraged by your honesty. And having read and loved The Round House, know you are in for a treat.

By: susanna

susanna — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:39:34 +0000

I’ve just finished Battleborn. I loved it, too much to explain in a comment. It’s still by my bed, wedged between A.S Byatt, Amos Oz and Sophie Calle. This piece made me giggle. Thanks. Bonne année, Susanna.

By: Darrelyn Saloom

Darrelyn Saloom — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 02:16:02 +0000

For once, I am thankful for a three-hour layover in Atlanta.