January 27, 2013

The Subconscious as a Collaborator

How do you come up with your book titles?  Asked this recently, my answer came quickly: At some point I just know what the title is. Which means I’ve been working on it subconsciously. Which makes me realize how essential my subconscious is to the writing process:

  • Stuck? Set it aside and come back to it tomorrow. Usually when I wake up I know what to do — my subconscious figured it out.
  • Sudden discovery, typically while brushing teeth or gardening, of a plot twist that ramps up the tension and surprise? Thank you subconscious, you are always on the job.
  • Realization, as the book nears completion, that details have coalesced into a united theme? My subconscious knew from the beginning what this book was about; the conscious mind is always the last to know.

My principle motivation to write is a desire to connect with other people, but a secondary motivation is to connect with myself and see what will next emerge.

As I write this I find it difficult to say “I figured it out subconsciously” rather than “my subconscious figured it out”.  It doesn’t disturb me to feel that I contain these separate entities.  Should it? 

January 23, 2013

My Unappreciated Rosemary

Driving home today, I passed a mass of lovely blue flowers. Wonder how long my rosemary bushes have been blooming?

I take my rosemary for granted. For many months it provides such charming flowers. It pleases bees.  It never needs water, it rarely needs pruning, it always spreads to cover the gaps, it drapes down the wall in an appealing manner. Its thick growth deters weeds. I could touch it every day and every day get a fantastic burst of powerful fragrance. Instead, at best, I brush against it by accident sometimes when I take the trash out.

It’s true I will always love the sage more but that does not excuse my neglect. I must try to do better.

January 22, 2013

Retirement Party Postponed…Indefinitely

So. When I was young I kept changing jobs and taking time off to do one thing or the other. I’d work on a novel. I’d do some traveling. I did a lot of worthwhile things and I pretended I agreed with Cary Grant’s character in HOLIDAY, who wants to have experiences while he is young then work later, after he discovers what he is working for.  (Pretended because I knew all along that what I wanted was simpler. I wanted to skip the day job thing entirely.)

I have friends and coworkers who chose less circuitous paths and a number of them have retired, or are considering it. So. I tried one of those on-line retirement calculators, and the results are in.  For the next decade, I only need to save 87% of my pay and then I will have enough saved to live at 22% of my current income level.  Of course if I could save 87% of my pay I probably wouldn’t need a retirement calculator.

Looking for a bright side – after living on 13% of my pay, my retirement income would really feel luxurious.

Overall, just one more indication that the kittens need to get jobs.

January 21, 2013

The Value of Shards of Writing Time

More progress with less time.  That seems to be the bottom line. Yesterday, the middle of three days off, I had all day to write. I frittered and chilled and squandered all those hours on doin’ nuthin’ (which has its own rewards but that’s another story).

This morning, crammed between the trip to the mechanic and the shuttling of kids – first items on a long must-do list – I knew it was now or never and I got a weekend’s worth of writing done in a couple hours.

These are recurring refrains. The tighter the time span, the more I get done, especially when preceded by a day of “nothing”, during which some part of my brain figures out what I need to write: when I sat down today I had it all figured out, but yesterday I had not a clue.

January 21, 2013

Communing with Vegetables

Winter’s not over yet but after weeks of cold, suddenly it feels like spring. Too early, certainly, and if this persists there will be wildfire hell to pay later. Nonetheless – I’ll take it!

Warm sun blue sky gentle breeze.  Just sitting outside is all I want in the world, today.

I really should get the chores done.

Birds singing.

I meant to do some writing today.

That sun really feels nice.

I’ve got work deadlines looming.

A cat and a dog lounging nearby on the warm ground.

I’ve neglected my blog of late.

This must be what it’s like to be a carrot, close to harvest time.

January 16, 2013

Lost Arts and Obsolete Skills

For some time I have heard kids say, I don’t need to learn how to spell or multiply. I have spellcheckers and calculators to do that for me. I disagree. The helper apps must remain just that – assistants – because these are basic skills we all need to communicate and make sense of the world. (Okay maybe not so much long division.)

However, there are some other kinds of training that I doubt we still need. Does anyone really need to know how to write in cursive? Or tell time using an analog clock?

What do you think? Are these obsolete skills? Are there others?