Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Searching for My Black Rock

Before i explain my dilemma, i should explain that "Black Rock" refers to the title of a song by the band O.A.R which apparently is a road and area in Rockville, Maryland, where the band originates. That area is apparently where the lead singer and his band mates went to relax and get away from things, write songs and gather ideas.
I have been searching long and hard for my black rock, where i could go and write freely and have not a care in the world. I believed i had found my rock many times before yet each time i realized it was not for me. I do not know why it seems so frustrating to find a place to relax, write and read where i am.
I have read numerous books on famous writers like: Hemingway, Joyce, Salinger, Whitman, Kerouac, etc... I have read what their daily writing habits were like, where they went to write and get away. They all were different. I have learned that it is not always the place itself but how you feel in that place that works for you and your writing.
Also, It is funny to make this connection but i am reminded as well of the last moments of the movie "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" when Matthew McConaughey's character confronts Kate Hudson on the Brooklyn Bridge and deters her from leaving New York. She tells him she has an interview in Washington for another publication and McConaughey's character, Ben, keeps asking her "Where are you going?" And she tells him its the only place she can go to write what she wants to write. Ben tells her that he does not buy that because she can write anywhere.

That is true.

I may struggle in finding my Black Rock but learning and believing that we, as writers, are able to write anywhere. It does not and should not matter where our "place" we escape to is.

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