Two Challenges
CHALLENGE 1: Do not view the world through my iPhone.
My father was an avid photographer. Early in their marriage, my mother and he owned a photography studio in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, the town where I was born. I have myriad photos of me because back then in the days of Kodachrome, I was a convenient model when they had a few frames left on the roll.
I blame this early introduction for my obsession for photography. I got my first camera, a Kodak Brownie, when I went to camp at ten years old. I still have the dozen or so blurry black-and-white pictures of the resident donkeys. And I’ve been snapping away ever since - long before my iPhone.
Now that I’m back in Paris, I’m determined not to spend all my time peering through my camera app to capture everything around me. Instead I want to actually experience the world head-on. So I set a challenge for myself of taking only one photo per day.
It isn’t always easy to keep myself to one photo and I admit I’ve cheated a couple of times when I found something that was just too good to pass up. But for the most part I’ve kept true to my goal.
Here are a few of my favorites:
First Autumn Sunset in Paris
The Cirque d’Hiver, the Winter Circus, has been a landmark of the 11th arrondissement since 1872. They used to have traditional circus performances but now there are mostly musical performances. The windows in my apartment overlook this fun building.
Ballet dans la Rue
I always wonder who goes around stenciling such images on the sidewalks here. What challenge are they making for themselves?
Photo Shoot, Square du Temple
The blonde woman in purple is a model pretending to play chess while everyone else is checking the lighting, etc. Look at all those phones.
Before the Concert, Philharmonie de Paris
Reflections in the entrance ceiling. This is a very modern building in a very old city.
Color in Pérouges, France
Reflections from the stained glass window. A small stone church in a hill-top village in the Rhone Valley.
Double Portrait with Door, Barcelona
I admit I took more than one photo per day while visiting Barcelona with my friend, Betsy last weekend. This portrait of us is my favorite.
CHALLENGE 2: Read my memoir draft aloud (again).
As many of you know, I have been working on a memoir about my relationship with my father for eleven years now. While I’ve been tempted many times to chuck it, I keep coming back to it. I’ve written and published two poetry collections but this is my first book-length prose work. The fact that I’ve got a manuscript of around 58,000 words is an accomplishment in itself. Even so, I’m determined to get it right someday.
I just finished an online course with editor Jessica Berg called The Soggy Middle which gave me insights about how to improve the soggy middle of my memoir. I know what kinds of revisions I need to make. However, what with travel and Paris distractions I haven’t had the band-width to dig into them - yet.
Instead, I decided to read my manuscript aloud - again. I’ve challenged myself to do this before but never made to all the way to the end.
I was pleased to discover Andromeda Romano-Lax’s Read Your Work Aloud Challenge on Substack. It’s always great to have a team plugging away at the same thing. This time with some accountability, I’m going to make it!
Book Recommendations
One of the best things about going to writing retreats is finding books to read. Here are two from writers I met at Karen Karbo’s Come to Your Senses Retreat in Collioure, France.
I love books that have settings that become another character. That’s the case with these two novels which take place in two of my favorite cities. While one is set in 1980’s Paris (no cell phones!) the other takes place in modern-day Manhattan.
Even though they have different time periods, both novels introduce the reader to young women learning how to live their best lives. Check them out.
When Paris Whispers by Marianne C. Bohr
Catrine’s journey made me nostalgic about my first trip to Paris in 1986.
Buy HERE from bookshop.org
The Dog Sitter by Eva Lesko Natiello
I was a dog sitter only once for a week and didn’t have nearly as many adventures as Colleen.
Buy HERE from bookshop.org
Are you setting challenges for yourself these days? I’d love to hear about them.