Let It Grab You...Then Use It

There are certainly moments when I just don't feel like writing, or when I don't feel like writing a particular chapter or scene.

I let my mood grab me and work on the scene I'm the most excited about at the time or the scene where the atmosphere or tension most fits what I am experiencing in real life.  There's always editing later.  I'd rather have the words, the thoughts, the feelings flowing because I'm in that place or in that mindset at the moment than have my fingers stuttering, trying to squeeze incongruent words out on the computer keyboard.

This doesn't mean what I do doesn't require imagination.  It always does -- and I enjoy making things up rather than drawing from my personal experiences.  It's not interesting to write strictly about myself or the people I know.  However, using my current environment or feelings helps make the writing meaningful to me.  Just in case no one else enjoys my work, at least I know I do.

Ren D.

Musings Before Bedtime

If they don't pay me in royalties, my friends, I think I might be willing to accept payment in the form of homemade butter or cheese.  A well-fed writer is less likely to spend pages describing food, I think.

Perhaps aside from the "no grocery shopping while hungry" rule, there needs to be a "no writing while hungry" rule!  Abraham Maslow did place the need for food at the bottom of his hierarchy for needs (where the most basic physiological needs were grouped).  How can you strive for higher purposes if you're sleepless, thirsty, hungry, and so on?

I write (and work) better when I'm a little hungry, though.  Maybe it was conditioning from all those years in graduate school.  I suppose you'll have to live with my fixation on describing food in my work.  :)

Ren "Hungry" D.