Home » Posts tagged 'writing life' (Page 12)
Several days ago, a friend and I went to a local farm to pick blueberries. In the field, it occurred to me that this would make a terrific blog post, because there were similarities between blueberry picking and the writing process. I took some photos, and I even asked my friend to take photos of me picking. As I filled my container, I looked for ways I could link writing and blueberry picking. It was going to be brilliant, the kind of post that would inspire writers for years to come.
Photo credit: Dex Ezekiel on Unsplash
So this is weird.
Last night, I was completely ready to be done with this #1000wordsofsummer challenge. This evening, as I watched the news and late-night television for the first time in ages, I wasn’t even thinking of writing.
But then . . . I found myself wanting to write.
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Photo credit: Erwan Hesry on Unsplash
My original plan for this final day of the #1,000WordsofSummer challenge was to write another 1,000 words in my novel, but that’s not what I’m doing.
Instead, my final 1,000 words will be directed to you, the wonderful folks who have accompanied me on this journey. (This means that my post will be a bit longer than usual, but I’m trusting you to handle it.)
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Nothing is convenient.
The sooner we learn this fact, the better. (By “we,” I mean me.)
Case in point: my workload was slow for the first half of May. Scary-slow. The kind of slow that makes you think, “Well, this is it. I had a good run, but it’s over.” Like Blockbuster, or the people who made 8-track tapes.
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When I was in high school, I wrote constantly. Stories spilled out of my brain, and my pencil was barely swift enough to catch them all. Sprawled on my bed, upright at my desk, out on the swing (where the stories raced around my mind, here and gone in nearly the same instant). Summer nights while the rest of the family slumbered, the hours ticking away as I reveled in my made-up world.
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True confession: I am not a technowhiz.
Which is why, when people talk about dictating their writing, I have visions of the device I used in the mid-1980s to transcribe tapes dictated by bosses who were far too busy to write words on a page. Notably, those guys (back then, men dictated and women transcribed) were considered cutting-edge (a term not yet invented) because they used a machine for dictating instead of having a secretary sitting in front of them with a steno pad.
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Delighted to announce that my short story, “The Women in the Club,” placed as a finalist in the 2020 Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition!
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The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (3d ed. 1992) defines “distract” thusly:
1. To cause to turn away from the original focus of attention or interest; divert.
2. To pull in conflicting emotional distractions; unsettle.
By these definitions, I have definitely been distracted lately.
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Today was the sixth consecutive day on which I devoted an hour to writing the sequel to State v. Claus.
If you’re a disciplined writer with an orderly writing practice, a six-day stretch may not sound terribly impressive, but trust me: you should be impressed.
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Here in southern New England, we expect traditional winter weather, but not too much of it. A snowstorm depositing 12” is considered a major event, as are temperatures in the teens (Fahrenheit). Today, we’re being visited by Winter Storm Cooper, which is expected to deposit 10-18 inches of snow between Monday and Tuesday, accompanied by wind gusts creating blizzard conditions and possible power outages. So, it’s a big deal.
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P. Jo Anne Burgh 