I always ...
I always find myself pulled in a million different directions. Should I work on this story or this one? Do homework for class ... or work on this story? Should I call this lady first, or do I need to do some more research?
Did I mention I'm always working on writing a zillion different things? Freelancing, I thought to myself, would be fun. I have lots of story ideas that aren't suited for the publication I used to work for. So, maybe someone else will want them. Turns out they don't want all of my silly ideas, but they want enough of them that I had to get a filing box.
So, I'm always tangled up in a web of stories — for my college paper, for two weeklies in town, two monthlies I'm trying to break into ... Jeez Louise, I say to myself. Now what have you gotten yourself into.
This web gets sticky sometimes. Fortunately, story deadlines try to escape my sticky web, often moving themselves to a more convenient date without ever asking me. Then again, sometimes my deadline for multiple stories is early Friday — and Thursday I start calling people. I flop down on the couch, kick out 850 words while watching Adult Swim ... Then sleep. Three hundred the next day for another short piece. Start on next week's pieces. More Adult Swim. More sleep. More pieces.
Of interest to me right now is why I'm writing this entry instead of working on one of my ... what, five, I think, pieces I'm dealing with this week. The answer, I think, is because I have this overwhelming desire to write. I learned freewriting exercises in my first year of college — I liked the way I wasn't allowed to ponder every word. It wasn't quite what I wrote that mattered, but that I wrote. If it's good, so much the better. If it isn't ... well, it will be someday, I hope. The goal is to just let my fingers do their thing, getting some stream of words from my brain. No thinking.
I always find myself pulled into things like this 50-words blog. I like the challenge. I like that someone will actually make me freewrite on a regular basis, because I think coming up with my own prompts is cheating. And if I had to come up with my own prompt, it would probably be: "For the next ten minutes, write the next 200 words of this damn story you need to finish." Which might actually be helpful. I like writing fast. I like knowing that when my deadline is sitting on the couch next to me, giving me five more minutes to finish my piece, I'll hand over pretty clean copy in three.
I always find myself bored with the prompt after, it looks like, eight minutes. I have an eight-minute attention span. Maybe I should time myself for just five on the next one ...
I always think I can do more than I really can. I thought I could write for 10 minutes, but apparently at eight I got bored and scratched my elbow instead. Damn.
I will now always time myself for five minutes instead. For the next 30 seconds, I'm going to scratch my elbow some more.
Word count: 552.
Time: 9 minutes
posted by Tracy Lightfoot @ 10:36 AM
4 Comments:
I am so glad you posted your raw writing. It was interesting to see your mind working through the exercise.
And you are right--15 minutes is a long time to freewrite. It just goes to show you how much you can get done in what seems like a short time. Good to remember the next time you think you don't have time to write.
This was a GREAT first entry for Fifty Words. Thanks for participating!
G
I only attempted a five-minute freewrite.
I taught college writing for years, but never thought of myself as a writer; it's just what grad students had to do to pay for that MA and PhD. But when I left academics, I wrote for aliving, daily columns on investing--I know, odd for someone with a lit background.
Writing is EASY for me when someone else tells me what I should write. When it's left up to me, I'm paralyzed. Go figure.
I agree -- if I ever tried fiction, I'd be so lost. I have plenty of ideas for news-features, but I could never do fiction.
This was very cool. I really like how near the end the reader can tell that although you're struggling to figure out what to write, you write about the fact that you're struggling to figure out what to write. Congrats on attempting to write for the entire 10 minutes. I think my mind would have started editing by that time, thus breaking the freewriting rules.
Post a Comment
<< Home