To Use or to Lose.

It’s a dance, this finding room to write.  And time and the quiet contemplation time that is necessary, to continue the thought, is the music.    

When time to write is granted to me, I do not always write.  If I have chosen not to be impatient and judgmental about how busy and noisy that it has been, or how my day has lead me to a state of exhaustion and I know the heart bottom feeling that my needs do not matter, and how I perhaps have authored this state of affairs I still have to figure out how to write.  Because it is when I can’t stand it any longer, and those few minutes of quiet opens up, I still have to shift my mind to being productive in an actual action now sort of way. 

 

And while I might start like a jitterbug on the dance floor while the tune is in ¾ time, I am out there and I’m doing something with my time.  It might only be 10 minutes, or it might expand to be a lot more, but it is mine to use.  Or lose. 

Stomp Dance - Miami, Oklahoma

I have to bring forth my ability to be comfortable with the empty screen.  I have to set side of all the possible various projects that make my mind frantic; all of the considerations that clutter my mind until I sway with the music.  For this is the time thing, mine to use or to lose.  And this is the writing thing, finding the rhythm and stepping out onto the floor. 

 

 

 

Shakespeare??

I've not enjoyed the joys of a formal advanced education, but I've always been a reader.  And among my treasures in my library is a little book called "Brush up your Shakespeare."  The author entertains and guides me through Shakespeare quotes in a way that expands my mind.  Call it Shakespeare light.  Now I've borrowed 'Shakespeare for Dummies' from the library and find my knowledge of Shakespeare enlarging. 
The thing is essentially, Shakespeare was a writer and as I read the analysis, albeit simple versions that they are, I am reading about his process.  I do not intend to become a scholar of the bard but I have come upon a method to use as I generate my fiction. 
Act I - Writer gets an idea and begins to use it.  Act II - Writer understands more of what makes fiction work.  And Act III - Writer works at this.

What Light through Yonder Window Breaks?

Writers Gather

Lloydminster Reads had an evening with Gail Bowen on Monday evening and our writer's group travelled to enjoy the event.  This is my third time I have attended and I'm starting to recognize the audience.  Who are we?  I venture this guess.  A segment will be avid readers, another will be people involved with book sales or the library world.  And the third will be writers.  Writers working at their projects.  Writers hoping for inspiration.  Writers who have yet to commit to the actual work of writing.  Writers who have published, writers who have not.  Writers who cherish the dream, writers who struggle with the reality.  And we gather. 
Gail Bowen is also the host of a writer's workshop and a book signing at the local bookstore.  This busy lady and prolific writer entertained us, and for this writer and many more, inspired us.  Thank you Gail.  And thank you also for the great writer's group activity, Linda, Ruth and Cheryl.  Onward

Being in Fiction Mode

I'm always in the preparation mode for fiction, because there are always stories.  You just have to look around.  Observation is the crucial ingredient.  But making a mental note of a character quirk is not writing fiction.  And coming up with a apt description of behavior or appearance isn't writing fiction either.  On the other hand, those mental notes can come forward the next time the fingers are poised over the keyboard.  In the end, I can gather all I want.  I can mull over thoughts, and I can garner real tidbits from people around me.  The preparation time for fiction includes all types and sorts of preparation but has to include keyboard time.  Simply put,  as an long ago writing mentor used to say, something has to happen.