HOWL, HOW?

I've been watching a very interesting DVD these past couple of nights (am I the only old person who watches movies over the course of 2 - 3 viewings?) called HOWL.

It is like a docu drama with animated clips about Alan Ginsberg's process. You know, I kinda think he was a genius. A very complicated person that put EVERYTHING out there. Much of his work, in fact maybe all of it, has autobiographical/memoirish elements.

I really love Ginsberg's honesty and transparency. Watching the movie (so far) there's a lot of discussion about memories--those that one consciously acknowledges and unconscious memories, and how one can bring those to the surface. He SAYS in the movie--as much of the dialogue is taken from actual records/interviews/etc--that he gets into a zone whereby the inside comes outside.

Wow.

Now that is some legitimately good stuff.

But HOW does a writer do that? Some use drugs, alcohol, etc to provoke or suppress memories, while other writers (such as myself) does nothing--except sit there. Sit there and write and think and write until either my fingertips begin to bleed to else words form, and from those formless words a thread that I follow to hopefully pull out a beginning, middle and end. The unconscious into the conscious. HOWL.