Editing-Packing in what is important!

Happy 100 degree plus June to you!  As the day gets brighter and flowers and people begin to wilt, I intend to do my best to hide inside and continue to edit my book, Mirror Images. To me, editing is serious and of utmost importance.  I have been guilty recently of whining and complaining about the difficulty.

Over the last few days I have come to realize there are more important things.

One serious disadvantage of so many warm days and dry parched ground in Colorado has been the horrible fires near Colorado Springs.  Myself and many of my fellow Missourians have driven across the abyss that is Kansas (Sorry, so not a fan of the I-70 drive.) to visit the very tourist places and towns now being burned.  It is frightening to think of the tens of thousands of people who are being temporarily or permanently displaced by something they cannot control.  My son in the Army is on the "safe" side of town, but has been working to help the people who have been evacuated.  He, like many other people of the city, is very busy these days.

I am glad that many people who have been evacuated had some notice to be able to remove some items from their houses.  But when I think how hard that really would be, it dismays me.  Would you try to keep the practical items or focus more on treasured things?  Would you know what was really important if you had to hurry?  I am not certain I would even know where I kept everything I would find important without some looking around.  How would you prioritize?  How would you be able to edit your whole life?

Today I am editing.  To me, my book is like a home I love.  And I am making the decisions of what practical things to keep, what lines and passages are my treasures, and I do have to sometimes search around to find and determine what is important to me to keep.

But it is just a book.  And that is a statement I won't always make.  I get to choose when and what to edit from my book.  If I am smart and save my drafts I can go back and get something if I decide it is actually important after all.  The fire victims don't have that option.  If my book were to disappear I would be upset and angry and sad.  But then I would do what so many people in Colorado and other places are going to have to do, grieve and start over.

Editing is simply a process I control.  There truly are more important worries in the world.

This little piggie built...

Writing retreats.  Like the three little pigs, what does yours look like?  Straw, sticks, bricks, or Starbucks?

Here are some famous ones! http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/11/famous-writers-retreats

Some might be surprised by the shacks and the hotel, but I totally get it now that I am writing more often and with more direction. The need to immerse yourself in your writing without interruptions seems to be overwhelming.  I understand Thoreau and his little hut now much more than I did when it was required reading in my upper high school and beginning college classes.  The last few years I have been paying attention to the people who are writers and their stories of where they do it.  So many seem to manage writing with kids and spouses and animals running in and out.   They manage day to day happenings and unplanned surprises and still manage to write. 

But I also understand why a husband and wife who are both authors like Jim and Shannon Butcher have separate writing areas on different floors.  I see why writer Denise Grover Swank swears by headphones to write while at home with her children.  I understand the numerous people who frequent coffee shops and libraries hovering over notebooks and computers.   I also understand why Stephen King changed his lonely office to more of family friendly room.  With all he writes and the complex world he writes of, I think he really might disappear for long periods of time.

I have heard over and over that if you truly want to write, you can write anywhere.  And I have seen some of this.  I often am somewhere and suddenly feel the need to put down an idea or dialogue and carry a notebook in my purse for this purpose.  I am always brainstorming when I am cleaning house.  Makes it so much more pleasant.  But I may be one of the people who does better with a space to write.  It might be because of all the planning I would do at my teacher's desk.  I think I need some type of physical boundary that says, "This is work.  Get to it."

Right now I rotate between the living room which has the best chair and the office/grandchildren's stay over area/second tv room, and sometimes the kitchen table if I really want to spread something out.  And I wear headphones.  Sometimes I don't have them on, but I have gotten so used to having them on to write, it is like a signal to my brain to produce.  It also makes my husband not talk to me, because he thinks I cannot hear him.  Wrong.

But I want a small, tastefully decorated office with a picture window either looking out on some beautiful nature or a beautiful shirtless firm masculine neighbor.  (I once ran into my own mailbox with my car mirror trying to see if my cute neighbor got a haircut.  He had.)  A cushy chair for my long desk, a recliner when I want to type with my feet up, a coaster for my tea, and a place for all of the stuff a writer generally needs.  It is a dream.

Or I might just go out on the back patio and watch all the cars go by while I write.  There is no straw, probably could find some sticks, and all the bricks will be on my iPod, while I sing along to, "She's a brick hoooooooooouuuuuuuuuse.  OW, She's mighty, mighty, just lettin' it all hang out!

 

Pseudo Writer No More- Or up, up, and away. Again.

My confession is that I have been a pseudo writer until now. I have played at it successfully. I have actually accomplished a few things of merit, but it has not been my career. And I blame having been a teacher. I have focused on giving my best to teaching. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVED teaching. My students rank right under my close family and friends in the loves of my life and frankly, I have spent more time with student than anyone else in my life. It is hard to think that I am not officially a teacher any longer. As one of my friends put it, "Being a teacher has been your identity." And my teacher friends will appreciate this idea. Being a teacher is a way of life and not just a job. And I had worked hard enough that I pretty much had it mastered. Now, although I have been learning craft and business and making writing connections, I am back at the beginning of a career. A demanding career at that. And just like teaching, my success is going to depend on my abilities and willingness to work hard and learn as I go. I can't decide if that is easier or harder at 48. When I was a new teacher I was too young to realize when I wanted to do something that wouldn't work or to go where it wasn't socially appropriate to accomplish what I needed to do. Now that I am older and wiser I worry that worry will prevent me from taking the necessary dive off the cliff with just the belief that all will turn out right. As I read over my previous posts I see a lot of starts and re-starts and I think that is okay. I don't know that a taking flight analogy is often thought of in context to me, but I think it is appropriate for starting something new in your life. You kind of stick your neck out a little, try a few running starts at your goal, some of them false, and often get your feelings hurt too. But each attempt or little hop is hopefully one in the right direction. I think I have what it takes to be successful. I have been paying attention, growing in some literary feathers, and building up my courage. It is time to embrace my new identity as a writer and commit to doing the hard work needed to take off toward the edge of the cliff and hopefully soar. Or at least bounce high enough off of the bottom to try again. And feel free to comment or follow my blog. I would appreciate it.