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My Obit
Born December 8, 1965 in Jamestown, North Dakota the only child of Esther and Stan Goffe. Raised in Enumclaw, Washington by schoolteacher parents gave a solid start – blending mid-west values with small town growth.
Being a bit of a traveller and seeker it was often easier to question than accept.
Surviving a taste for adrenaline and gravitational pull from the wilder side, eventually settling down in the Seattle area.
Learning about the gifts of life from daughter Heather and her journey.
Sharing eclectic experiences with several great friends, many special acquaintances and a few wild characters.
Enjoying the path with a special dog proved to be life changing.
Life was rich.
I liked the idea of becoming a kind of Renaissance Man.
Hopefully I achieved this on some level, before I left.
Happy Trails…
That’s the secret!
“If you don’t take their money, they can’t tell you what to do. That’s the secret!” –Bill Cunningham
How do you help a writer who has been damaged by hearing someone that they shouldn’t have?
Why would someone in the position of Teacher or Advisor give an over-the-top harsh critique of a gifted writer – seeking to improve upon their obvious gift?
Is it believed that crushing someone (who is likely more talented than the critic) is somehow helpful, making them fight back and try harder?
Or is it just a display of jealousy.
This happened to an amazing writer that I proudly consider a friend.
She seems to be hurting from the opinion of one person who does not deserve the power to yield that affect on her.
I never sought to write (it could be argued that I don’t) nor expect it to go anywhere, so a critical attack on me or something that I’ve written might roll off my back with a grin and a middle finger – making me of little value in helping her.
How do you help a writer who has been damaged by hearing someone that they shouldn’t have?
From Matt Love’s Chair
The lines have cut deeper into my face,
I have a few more fights left in me,
Maybe one more Crash.
Yet I still don’t have some answers, the answers, those that make me talk to myself.
Taste Life Twice
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” — Anais Nin
A little Background & Reflection
I started writing about Life with my dog Sarrah a few months after she was gone.
It just happened, I never set out to write anything nor get this involved with it, but here I am. As if life cracked me open and the words just started coming out. I began writing daily for an hour or two, sometimes all day and even a few marathon weekends with little time for food or sleep, I did this for about a year.
I set my pen down the day that I learned people in the present run out of time for those who live in the past.
I went from keeping my binder with me at all times to leaving it on the coffee table.
Instead of writing daily, I maybe read it a little every other week and tweaked anything that I stumbled on. This went on for almost a year.
One day I decided to pick it back up and work through it. I made some “Draft Copies” and gave them to a few friends and family, noting that it was far from finished. I wanted to give it, to give Sarrah, some kind of life and protect the story from being lost.
Having never read Memoir I began attending writing conferences, seminars and classes a year ago. Learning to take my story apart, reworking it for Show not Tell is easier said than done, seems especially for me.
I understand that in the paper-thin chance this story of a Special Dog and an Old Boy ever becomes more than evolving pages in a weathered binder on my coffee table (and a bit on a blog) it will be run through normalizing software to Scrub out my Bad Habits, over-polish punctuation and trim off the rough edges… somehow making it no longer feel like it’s mine.
Perhaps what I’m writing is simply a record to be read aloud to an older version of me, staring out a window, trying to remember a life.
Confession
I must confess, I Never thought I’d be involved with blogging: not following any, nor especially having one.
I started my blog after listening to Nina Amir speak on “How to Blog a Book” at the 2013 Write on the Sound writers’ conference (another surprise from following the spirit of my dog down this writing trail). This trail is full of new experiences and literary adventures, most completely unforeseen to me, so I’m just going with it.
To back up a little, I always dreaded writing in school (hated might be more accurate). For my twenty-year – two-year college degree I took Writing 101 – last. From this class came something that I wrote called “What Happens”. Afterward I didn’t write much of anything until I needed something, something to help me while dealing with the loss of my dog dying. So I began what I call “Sharing Gifts with Sarrah”. This led me to taking classes, attending seminars, writing workshops and then blogging. I’m not sure about blogging etiquette or rules (which is just as well since I’d probably ignore them anyway), which leads to my motivation for this confession. I go back and edit parts of what I’ve posted about “Sharing Gifts with Sarrah”, mostly small tweaks, but edits all the same (I recently started tagging those significantly changed “Amended”). Blogging bits and chunks of the story actually forces me to make them better. I find that small improvements are needed to make a portion float on its own, rather than fall short. I also don’t Reblog. Certainly these edits go largely unnoticed, which is fine with me or at least has been until now.
I recently joined a Memoir Writing class, a group of writers (some of which are former classmates from the Hugo House) taught by Tara Hardy. The point you are looking for is that I turned in the chapter “FUgly” for the class to read and workshop in the next class on June 17th (Sarrah’s birthday). It is a difficult chapter that needs writing improvement. I reworked again it over a few days (and edited my post) prior to turning it in for critique. Certainly their feedback will lead me to many more improvements and yes more edits. Which makes me wonder if I’ll then repost it or perhaps make it be a new Version 2 (actually more like Version 5 or 7) for comparison. Who knows…
The true confession is that I don’t really know what I’m doing or maybe even Why, but I like it.
Alone
Being Alone
Builds
Quiet Character
and
Silent Strength
Treading Water
You may need to Tread Water
for a very long time
Before
Favorable Tides Return
Can Bryan Write? 