One of the things that I do as a writer is to regularly immerse myself in a variety of different projects which are designed to keep me interested and engaged in life. It is only through getting out and active in an array of different experiences that we gain the kind of creative inspiration that really keeps us fresh as writers. One of the projects that I have going on this year is called ‘the neighborhood project’. My goal is to focus on exploring one specific San Francisco neighborhood each month. The neighborhoods here are all so unique and interesting, filled with their own histories and cultures and modern attractions, that it is impossible not to find that there’s something to find in every single part of the city. I find that I benefit from this because it lets me explore a topic in-depth for one month (which is great for a writer/researcher to do) and also because it allows me to really go out in search of experiences and images that I wouldn’t otherwise have found.
February was Chinatown month because Chinese New Year fell in February and that meant that it was the time for the annual Chinese New Year parade. I had been saying that I was going to go to that event every year for as many Februarys as I’ve been in San Francisco and I’d never made it before, usually because it was raining. It poured down rain this year but I went anyway and it was a terrific experience. The streets were packed with entertainers and costumes and firecrackers and merriment and it was definitely something worth seeing.
Some of the other things I explored and experienced in Chinatown last month included:
- Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. I had heard about this place on Ross Alley in Chinatown and wanted to explore it. I was expecting it to be a big factory because I knew that you could tour it to see how fortune cookies are made. However, it’s in a small building in an alley that appears unmarked. It’s just one room with handwritten signs saying that you should leave 50 cents if you wish to take pictures. Indeed, you can see how fortune cookies are made and you can sample them. Neat little place and it reminded me that not every famous things needs to be super historic or super modern; there’s an in-between that’s really what real life is all about.
- The alleys of Chinatown. I go through Chinatown nearly every day but there’s so much of it I’d never explored before. Every little alley has its own shops, its own art, its own architecture. You could spend an entire day wandering around the few blocks that make up Chinatown and stumbling across new things all of the time.
- Amy Tan. I knew that Amy Tan’s books are set in and inspired by the time that she lived in Chinatown. That inspired me to go ahead and start reading her books again, starting with the Joy Luck Club. These aren’t the types of novels I typically read and I was interested in the chance to immerse myself in them. I certainly appreciate them in a different way now that I live in San Francisco than when I first read them before I’d moved here.
Related Links: How Annual Projects Inspire Creativity, The Way That Berkeley Inspires
Question of the Day: What similar projects do you have going on that keep you going when you aren’t otherwise feeling motivated?
[Tags] inspiration, writing, creativity, projects [/Tags]
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