Bart Westgeest

Imagine a man or a woman who owns the best and most modern television money can buy. A fancy wide screen with surround system sounds.. whatever… Now think that this person watches only one channel, say the first channel that appeared when the television was turned on the first time. A life long, one channel…. We wouldn’t [...]

Thomas Nydahl quotes regularly on his blog Occident from Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet. Three days ago the quote was about monotony, stating that an existence should be monotonous in order not to be monotonous. When life is lived the same way every day, then every little thing becomes important, and every little change [...]

After reading a post by Merlin Mann on the process of starting a project (and to keep going) and after listening to Elizabeth Gilbert in a TED-talk mentioned in the post about nursing your creativity, I understand that they offer a way to deal with one of the major obstacles for writers.. We all know it [...]

I can understand why Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones” is a bestseller. It is a inspiring book with a mission: To get people to write as a habit in an honest and spontaneous way. She advocates the practice of freewriting – that is to sit down and start filling up that white paper. Don’t [...]

While playing a game of cards it struck me how important it is to organize well. First it looks like the cards don’t combine and that I have no chance of winning the game, but when I start to sort them it suddenly becomes clear how my chances really are and what I am missing. [...]

After rereading some of the stories I eagerly read in my youth by the Dutch writer J.M.A. Biesheuvel I noticed that he actually gives clear hints about his ways of collecting material for his stories. In for example the story Broos’ boze droom from the bundle Slechte Mensen (1973) Biesheuvel tells about a man who writes [...]

….osme parts oar also half demolished and dot liook too goofd. Dreams are an important source of information about things I usually already know about me. But they make me aware of what I go through in a beautiful and fascinating way. When in a dream state I experience the emotions in a rather direct way and [...]