DREAMWALKS

Writing Challenge = Sweet Dreams.

More running around yesterday and I had to leave right in the middle of a good writing session. Oi! Hard to keep my mind in the world of NOOR when I'm negotiating traffic, dropping sons off at appointments, filling granola bags at the PCC, pumping gas yadda, yadda, yadda.

At some point once I'm out in the world my "writing mind" vanishes. I find it hard to get back into the creative flow, but I have a few secret ways back.

Once home, if I putter, wipe counters with windex (I'm a windex freak), pick up a little and let my mind wander, sometimes the story comes back to me. Many writers know this trick. Forcing yourself to get right back to the computer and shouting OKAY GET BACK TO WORK usually = brain freeze.

Another secret way in is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, "To sleep perchance to dream." I lie down. Breathe deep. Sometimes I just fall asleep for a while and that's okay. I know I can't force it. But other times my mind begins to float. I follow the lazy stream and drift back into the storyworld.

That's what happened yesterday. I shut my eyes and soon enough I saw a scene. Not the one I'd worked on that morning, but a new one. The next step in THE ANCIENTS tale. I relaxed and waited. Ah, the characters in the mountain cottage were talking.

I crept up a little closer to the cottage and listened in. The dialogue was quick, exact, tense, and funny. Everything I needed to move the story forward was there. I threw off the covers, raced up to my office and typed the scene. A new chapter was born at 4:30 yesterday. A bit of a scrawny baby chapter now but she'll fatten up soon I know.

There is a Quaker saying, "Proceed as the way opens." And yes, if I've done a little writing early in the day, the way might open later if I let myself rest and drift back into the stream.

So all you hard working writers out there. Here's your assignment. If your writing time gets interrupted and it's a while before you can get back to your book.
Yawn
Get cozy
Rest
Relax
Listen.
If the story begins to speak again, dreamwalk to your writing desk, have a seat and write.

Until the next blog. Be well.
Janet