Today I took my regular swing through town, first to Barnes and Noble to look for something I might buy with the Christmas gift card I received as a present from Brandon and to the Bismarck Public Library to return books. While in the library I checked out the Montana writer Ivan Doig's Heart Earth, A Memoir. I've read several things by him and find he speaks in a very down-to-earth style. I read an article about him in one of the recent Montana magazines. He lives on Puget Sound near Seattle, and a picture of him shows him outlined against the enviable view from his large office window. His goal is to write 400 words each day.
So often I have heard it said that if you want to be a writer, you have to write every day. Part of my goal in writing this web log each day is to get back into practice. I write to meet a self-imposed schedule. My grammar suffers from disuse, and my copies of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style and the Harbrace College Handbook get a regular workout.
After leaving the library I drove up to the North Dakota Heritage Center to wander through an art show. Much of what is called art is actually a form of craftsmanship, but there were several exhibitors present who create true art. I admire that quality in artists. They conceive and render something in an original format that no one else has thought of or does. In effect they become the models for the rest of us to copy.
