Sunday, March 15, 2009

Daydreaming

Have you ever imagined that one perfect place where you could just sit down and write to your heart's content? You know, that place where there are no interruptions, the weather is always perfect, the coffee's always hot and the beer's winter cold.

I know that place, it's alive in my head. A small cottage with a big front porch that looks out over the most perfect spring-fed lake I've ever seen. The sun's slipping up over the mountain casting a pink hue over the entire world. I'm wrapped in an over-sized sweater, sitting on my porch sipping coffee, the laptop sitting on the wicker table beside me waiting for my fingers to stroke the keyboard.

Over the scent of the coffee, the aroma of locust blossoms blend with the wild scent of multi-flora rose to waken my senses and open the possibilities of the day. I reach for the computer and start to pound the keys watching the story blossom on the screen in front of me. And the world is perfect.

Okay, you can wake up now. Nobody has that perfect place to write. Let's face it, most of us are lucky if we can grab an hour here or there to hit the keyboard and as we work our way through the day, our story spins itself out in our head waiting for those few precious moments when we capture the magic of those words on paper.

The real writer grabs every free second to write down words and sentences to compose their stories. They don't sit around waiting for the perfect situation, the perfect place, the perfect day, the perfect...well, let's face reality here.

The world isn't perfect and if you keep waiting for perfect, you'll never get that novel or short story written. You'll live in the world of wanna-be. You'll be on your death bed still waiting for the perfect moment to write that book you always wanted to write. And it will be too late.

5 comments:

David Cranmer said...

I just bought a mini-Dell to carry with me during moments of inspiration. It works great! Btw you have been mentioned over at the Pulp Writer's blog.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Nothing wrong with the place. It's my head that isn't always there lately.

G. B. Miller said...

So very, very true.

A good challenge to have is to write wherever you can get the opportunity.

Pen and paper works quite well for me during those brief moments of inspiration.

Longer moments require major thinking of an outline before it gets put to paper.

sandra seamans said...

And the Pulp Writer's been mentioned right back, David. As for me, I've always got paper and pens wherever I am.

Patti, I love my little office, too, but when the traffic in the house gets heavy, I like to dream about that secret place. It's kind of like those old Calgon commercials "Take me away".

I'm not much of an outliner, G. I usually just start writing until I stall then start writing down questions and answers until I figure out where to go. I guess that's the great thing about writing. Everyone has a different method but we all get to the same place - a finished story.

Barbara Martin said...

I've been blogging too much this last year and not written nearly enough or edits. Now I reorganized my time between job hunting and writing, with blogging last on the list and only for an hour daily. It makes for quick reading and typing comments.