Day Two: Writing Out of My Head

December 2 Writing.
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?

First the funny responses: look after my children. Surf the Internet. Read other peoples’ writing.

But of course those things do contribute to my writing.

Writing is three things: collecting. Thinking. And expressing.

(It’s like a digestive system!)

My daily life contributes to the collecting. I pay attention. That is second nature.

The expressing is easy. I can type. I can write. I have paper, pens, laptop, desk, time if I make it, for expressing. It’s physical. I might not like the results right away but I know I can edit, I know I can salvage.

(Everybody poops!)

I have taken extra pains to not think while I write, to trust my brain to let everything out if I put a pen in my hand or a keyboard under my fingers.

But the thinking. The middle part. The digestion. The transformation of nutrition to product. Eat, sleep, poop. It’s what babies do. Mine eat and poop fine, but the sleep is the issue. For me, the middle step is the issue too. Why?

BRAIN.

MY BRAIN.

IT NEVER STOPS.

I need quiet in my head. To process things, get them ready for writing down.

My head is a highway. There are always cars humming by, I don’t always notice what colour they are, they just buzz and hum and go and stuff and whee. Most of it, not useful. Most of it, cars I don’t care about. Most of it, bafflegab so I don’t think about other stuff. Non-productive head-noise.

Can I eliminate it? Yes?

By quieting the highway. By sitting in darkness. By letting my mind be unoccupied more than the 10 minutes a day while I am showering.