Write On Wednesday: A Penny for Your Thoughts

Last night was a porch sitting kind of night. It was just cool enough to be comfortable on my west-facing back porch, so I could sit and let the sun wash over me on its way to bed. I spent about 20 minutes there, with one of my dogs shade-bathing in the cool green grass underneath my feet. He and I were both content to “set a spell,” which is unusual because we are the restless ones in the family. I wasn’t reading or writing or talking on the phone.

I wasn’t Facebooking or Tweeting.

More importantly, I wasn’t contemplating doing any of those things.

While I rarely allow myself the luxury of letting my mind wander, it’s even more rare that I sit and focus my attention on one thing - a writing idea, or a plan of action for my life, or even the menu for next week’s meals.

Recently, I’ve come to the realization that my writing - in fact, much of my life - suffers from my inability or unwillingness to think.

I’m talking about the kind of deep thoughtfulness when you focus your intellectual energy on one topic and one topic only, whether it’s the points you want to convey in an essay, the type of life you want to live when you retire, or whether to buy kitchen spice racks for the counter or wall spice racks or even whether to buy a spice rack at all.

Just as my body flits from one activity to the next, so do my thoughts, never seeming able to stay still but whizzing across the landscape of my mind like wispy cirrus clouds on a summer afternoon. I want to slow them down, fluff them up with content until they lie heavy and firm on my brain.

How do I make that happen?

This summer, I’m going to commit to more thoughtful porch sitting time. Undoubtedly some of it will be like last night, simply letting my thoughts run idly through my head.

But I’m intentionally planning some time for pure thinking - setting my mind on a topic and keeping it there for more than 30 seconds at a time.  And even if I don’t come up with anything that’s worth more than a penny, I still think it will be time well spent.

Check out today’s Write On Wednesday post, and add your two cents worth...

A Penny for Your Thoughts

One of my very worst writing habits is failure to think. An idea pops into my head and I sit down at the keyboard and start writing, letting the words take me where they will.

Sometimes I sit at the blank screen and start typing something, anything, again letting the words take me down one path after another until I stumble upon a makeshift destination.

While I believe there are times this kind of writing is valuable, I also believe I rely on it too much, that I write too casually without taking the time to think through my ideas or turn them carefully around in my mind as I would an interesting rock or seashell found on the beach.

I believe real writers must think as much as they write - maybe more. Louise Penny, one of my favorite mystery writers, keeps a lovely blog where she talks about the intersection of daily life and writing. The other day, she wrote these words:

Wrote more than 2,000 words today, but not happy. I think it's close, but slightly off. Perhaps just too much detail....need to streamline it. But I walked a few times around the pond and stopped at the bench to think, and came to the conclusion that it needs tightening, sharpening, and I need to really pin down what I want this section to say and do. The purpose.

“I walked a few times around the pond and stopped at the bench to think...” Good writing needs that mulling over time, both before and after the words appear on the page. Time to consider what’s about to be said or to reconsider what has been set down in black and white.

Brenda Ueland also touches on this idea, a concept she calls “moodling” and defines as “long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.” This is how we open the door for our imagination, allow ideas to wander in and make themselves comfortable.

The pace of modern life doesn’t always allow for the kind of deep thoughtfulness I’ve decided is so important to a writer. Blogging and Facebooking and Twittering encourage us to throw ideas out there willy-nilly, to say whatever pops into our head at a given moment. After all, there is always the opportunity to post something else tomorrow, or even in 15 minutes if you so choose. Our attention is fragmented by cell phones and texts and e-mails, like noisy toddlers clamoring to be noticed.

It’s hard to silence that noise and focus on a single strand of thoughts pertaining to your work in progress.

But I believe it’s imperative to do so.

And if you can, those thoughts will be worth much more than a penny.

How about you? Do you think as much as you write? How do you invite deep thoughtfulness into your writing life?

Weekending

It’s a long, lazy one this time ‘round. Summer shade sitting, cold drink sipping, beach book reading. Dirt digging and plant potting. Barbecue grilling and potato salad stirring. Memorializing those who’ve left us, who served the family with love, devotion, and hard work. Who served the nation with bravery.

Weekending in summer. Long may it wave.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend.

Happy Summer.

weekending with Amanda

The Write Stuff

The comedian George Carlin had an old routine that always cracked me up. It was about “stuff” and how we all had too much “stuff” and everywhere we went our “stuff” followed us around. By the time he started talking about the portable containers someone invented so we could take our “stuff” with us on vacation, I was rolling on the floor.

I’ve been dealing with a lot of “stuff” lately - the tangible sort that comes with cleaning out houses and moving from one place to the next.

But also the sort that collects in the corners of your life, the white elephants of living we try to ignore in hopes that they’ll disappear.

When I’m bombarded with “stuff,” my creative side suffers. That has definitely been the case this past month or two. Both of my parents are ill, I sold a home that I loved - sad stuff, really - and so I’ve not been writing very much. I stopped doing morning pages too, because it was too hard to write anything about the stuff that was bothering me.

Intellectually, I know that writing can help people work their way through difficult times. But sometimes it can be beneficial to retreat from the things you do most often and just be quiet for a while, take some figurative deep breaths and regroup.

That’s where I am right now, working my way back to the words, putting all the stuff back in it’s proper place as I go.

And whatever stuff you’re dealing with today, a good laugh always helps.  Here’s George Carlin to give you one.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac]

Small World

Although I’m not a medical professional, working as support staff to a group of nurse case managers offers some valuable knowledge and connections for everyday life. I’ve learned so much about accessibility options for people with all sorts of physical challenges. There is a whole world of items I’d never heard of before - grab bars and reachers and ramps and handicap accessible vans and shower benches and lift chairs and orthotic shoes. The list goes on and on.

Ten years ago when I started this job, I didn’t realize how important this knowledge could be to me personally. But with aging parents (and neighbors and relatives) it has become evident that I may have to use this information in a very practical way.

We’ve been looking at some ways to modify my mother’s house to make it safer and easier for her to maintain her independence with activities of daily living (see how easy that medical jargon creeps into my writing?) And although my husband chuckled when I asked him to check out a company called Mr. Grab Bar, he was soon engrossed in perusing a vast array of support bars and handles that could be attached to walls in every room of the house.

There are also several construction companies in our area who specialize in home modifications - everything from simple ramp installations to entirely refiguring kitchens and bathrooms with lower cabinets and roll under sinks for wheelchair users. Thanks to the experiences of several of our clients at work, I know which ones to contact and which ones to avoid!

The wide world intersects with our smaller world in so many different ways.

It’s always nice when it works to your advantage.