The Process

Stan’s piece “Spilled Tea” inspired me to share some of my creative process with the group. Wouldn’t it be helpful if we all shared our little writing secrets?


The Process
By Connie Wolf
9:00am
I sit at my desk, notebook, pens and computer at the ready. I scribble a title or an opening sentence. I cross it out; I draw a flower in the margin of my now, desecrated page. I have a prompt at the ready or maybe, on rare occasion, an original idea and even a vague notion of where I want to go with it. I’ve set aside the time, I’m dressed in my most comfortable sloppy non binding clothes. I’ve had my morning coffee, took my morning pills and brushed my teeth. What’s there to stop me? Let the creative process begin! Dun to Dun…….Dun to Dun……Charge! I sing to myself.
9:15am I think, maybe I’ll look up some quotes up on the internet, something I can copy, respectfully attributed, kind of a kick start. No! I tell myself, you’ve done that entirely too much lately they will have to re-name your column, rather than “Connie’s Corner”, they can name it “Connie’s pithy quote of the month” or “Stuff I Wish I had Written” or “Ramblings from a Vacuous Mind” I like that word vacuous, I’m going find a way to work it into my piece. What piece? I haven’t written a word. I need to put pen to paper and write for twenty minutes without stopping, it works in class it should work here but first I’ll warm up my coffee and use the bathroom, wouldn’t want natures call interrupting my creative flow.
9:30am On my way back to my desk, I take a sudden interest in the disarray in my kitchen, the dish towel was not hung up and the potholders are all askew, I straighten them and look out the kitchen window, it looks like my neighbor Jan put some new piece of pottery in her flower bed, for someone on a fixed income she certainly spends a lot on statuary, it does look nice though, she keeps it so neat and tidy. What am I doing! What am I thinking; I’m going back to my desk and get started right now! I pass a pile of junk mail on the corner of my desk. I’ll just sort through this and throw it away. Look at that waste basket! It’s full again, over flowing, I have to empty it and replace the liner; I can’t just leave it like this.
9:45am Back at my desk, I doddle some more, a daisy, an eye with a single tear drop. How pitiful is that? I’ve been doodling all my life and I’ve shown no improvement at all, I doodle the same way now as I did in the fourth grade, If I would write as much as I doodle I could have completed a trilogy by now. Why are so many works written as series now? It’s gimmicky and I don’t like it, I mean if I don’t discover an author until they are seven books into a series I’ll never find all the volumes and if I do, I can’t afford that many at one time anyway. Well, Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia were series and I can hardly fault them. Enough of this mind wandering foolishness; I must get back to the matter at hand. Maybe I’ll forgo paper and pencil and compose on the computer instead. No more doodling for me!
10:00am Sitting before me is a nice clean word document, I’ll start with my name and the date, Amy says we should always put our name and the date on our piece; we need to own our work. You know what? I am really bored with Times New Roman and Arial I need a new font, something to give real life to my piece, maybe Papyrus in Plum or Gungsuh in sky blue……. What exactly is a “wingding” font? I have a variety of wingding fonts none of which consists of letters. What are they used for? I’ll Goggle it; it’ll only take a moment. Well, according to Wikipedia they were invented by Microsoft for Windows 3.1, they were developed in 1990 but it doesn’t say what it’s used for. On Answers @ yahoo.com they say they are just used for decoration, you would have to print out a chart of all the symbols and then use them to make a line of smiley faces or something. Well that sounds like a waste of time, speaking of which, I better get back to my writing. An opening sentence might be just the thing. How about, “I try not to think about it but my mind often returns to the visceral memory of……..” Oh I’m not sure if I used the word “visceral” correctly, I better right mouse click it and read its definition, you know what I like? I like the way you can right click on a word and find all those synonyms for a word that is so cool! I mean, if I use the same word three times or maybe more I am being redundant, right mouse click and Voila! Of course it might be more authentically creative to come up with my own words but, on the other hand, there is much to say in favor of modern technology, I mean William Shakespeare probably wrote with a pen and quill but I’m certainly not going to do that, am I? I wonder if he did, write with a pen and quill I mean maybe I should look that up. No, I won’t, I need to get down to it right now. Let’s see, where was I? Yes, “visceral memory” oh there’s that melodic little chime, I have an email, I’ll just take a quick peek and see who it’s from, I’ll be back in a sec.
10:30am It was just an advertisement but it had a two for one coupon in it, so I printed it out. A penny saved is a penny earned I always say. Yeah I always say it but Ben Franklin wrote it and I better start writing something for myself. Was it Ben Franklin? I’m going to look that up. Yes, it was Ben Franklin, it sounds like old Ben doesn’t it? Another email, this one was from the vacations-to-go newsletter, that volcano in Iceland sure has played havoc with global travel hasn’t it? Well I’ve put down my email program so no more interruptions from there but now I’m thirsty, I’ve had enough coffee for today, think I’ll switch to diet Pepsi, of course it contains just as much caffeine and a bunch of sodium to boot. It also tastes good and I’m going to get one. On my way back to the desk I glance out the window and notice the wind has really picked up today, it’s only 62 degrees out and it’s almost 11:00. Almost 11:00, no wonder I feel hungry, I skipped breakfast, and besides I’ve been at this for two hours, I need a break. Then this afternoon I needed to do a bit of shopping so I better jump in the shower after I eat. I don’t know how I ever got anything done before I retired, the days speed by so fast. Oh well, tomorrow’s another day. I’ll write tomorrow, first thing in the morning, I’ll brook no distractions, I’ll display stellar self discipline, I’ll try some of Jon’s Yoga exercises, to clear my mind and invite the muse. Tomorrow, I’ll write tomorrow.


April 21, 2010