Day Two

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The temperature returned to normal, wind blowing the branches of the trees, the ocean loud and crashing and white caps growing, moisture in the air palpable. And the sludge black coffee from yesterday's french press drained caffeine hitting blood, heritage flakes and soy milk consumed, water with lemon at hand.

Laptop booted up, phone off.

Unwashed, hair askew, still in pajamas, hands on keyboard.

Ocean rolling lulling sounds of birds holding on sounds of air water life. Words.

Ready.

Go.

Write.

Yes.
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Writing. Walking. Warmth.

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Done! My submission for the Methow Valley workshop is in.

I took a break from writing and went to the bakery in Nye Beach - an iced mocha and a mini whole wheat sourdough loaf. This was followed by a walk on the beach, barefoot, with unseasonably warm air and waded in the any-season temperature water (freezing).

Now I'm back at the condo to create something for dinner, drink some wine, and get back to writing.




Back to rewriting. I've done my editing and the piece is in. Now it's time to tackle some rewrites. Not just edits, but rewrites and re-vision.

Writing. Moving Forward. Time

The only problem with driving vacations is that driving time takes away from writing time.

Driving vacations give you plenty of conversation time when you're traveling with someone. But less of the down time when you get to your destination. Although, for some of us (me), the driving is part of the "down time."

Which may seem kind of weird. But not to me. I love driving.

But this lack of non-driving down time didn't allow for much writing on our recent trip to Los Angeles. I'm not complaining; simply observing. The trip was wonderful and we had nice visits with Ian and Ruby.

Now I have the opportunity to remedy the lack of down time for writing by taking a writing retreat to the coast! I just happened to end up with a few days off in a row - completely unplanned but very welcome - so last week I decided to use this time for writing.

I had many options to fill the time. Really. Many. No exaggeration.

Oh - the part I haven't yet said? I received an email while we were in L.A. that the writing for the Writing By Writers workshop in May is due on April 10th.

So. Nothing like a deadline to light the fire. And, to be fair, I did start working on something about four weeks ago, but there is still plenty to do. And what needs to be done is time intensive and a large block of time.

Which I will have. Soon.

Time. Water. Salt air. A comfortable place to sleep, with a view, with power for my laptop.

Time for writing.

Writing as Part of the Path

A story often is more than what we see on the page on our hands in our minds. This story is like that. This particular story I'm talking about is how this thought came to be, which is not what I'm writing about here. Now.

It is enough for now to say that I came across the photo below with the search terms "writing" and "mandala." I'm not going to write more about why I was using those terms to search - no, not now. There is something in process and this, right now, is about what I found.

This photo, while it is not a mandala (or maybe it is in a different way), had a significant impact on me when I saw it. Even though it is not at all what (I thought) I was searching for, it was what I was searching for.

Later, this may become more clear. Or not.

For now. This photo reminds me of the path I'm traveling and the place of writing (and more) on this journey. Exploration.

Photo from Jenna Avery

workshop photos

More Corporeal Writing photos from the spring "Reinventing Revision" workshop with Lidia Yuknavitch and bunch of other wonderful beings. (photos by Domi J Shoemaker)

Corporeal Writing - Spring - Reinventing Revision

At this moment I cannot tell you why this workshop was so important.

Except that it was. It was face2face. Other writers breathing the same air, reading the same words, sharing, going into it together, speaking truths and insights and micro stories within the larger stories.

Words. My words their words our words.

Trust.

Exploration.

Explosion. Budding. Building.

More for which words have left me.

Working through the vision and re-vision and the revision of re-vision.

Facing ourselves and each other through writing.

Finding gems and tossing some out and getting to the pieces within, where the real stories lie.

And more. But now, sleep.

yes to corporeal writing

Not much more to say. Yes. One day in the Corporeal Writing spring/revision workshop. Revision in new ways. Entering the writing, entering community, entering through the pathways of the body.

Words.
Images.
Instinct.
Insight.

Revision like you've never done it before. This, on top of the revision workshop with Ariel in the Literary Kitchen, I feel fully provisioned to get through another edit of the bigger project.

Yes.

This.

Power in writing.

Powerful writing.

This starts .... not quite now ... soon

the face2face Corporeal Writing spring adventure begins in

well

not too long

first i have to get there -- i will

leaving soon

Writing

Revising

Going deeper and wider and, perhaps, in a new direction

or two or three or

diving

without a net

into the waters of stories within stories within

with trust

and excitement

8 * 3 * 6

I wasn't sure where my original title, "Loves and Losses and Missing Time," was leading, but it jumped up there so I went with it.

What I intended to write as I looked from my last post to now was about lost time. Not lost time, but time filled with things to do. With passions and permission, with commitments to others and to myself, with responsibilities and with new ideas and ideas waiting to come to fruition.

 It had been two weeks since I'd written here about my writing.

My writing is still moving forward.

I have a new thing I'm doing with setting some minimum goals. One is a daily intention. One is a weekly goal, which I can divide up any way I choose or can; that goal I have exceeded every week since I started tracking it.

The third thing I'm tracking (with a goal) is how much I write in a week. Although I've found with writing, that when I'm in the final week of preparation for a play, I don't write. Or I don't write much. So while I have set a weekly goal for writing, I have also discovered that the number within a week needs to be flexible and the time carries over. So that my weekly writing goal is actually an "even it out goal" with the intent of making up missed time within one to two weeks of the "lost time."

So far, so good.

Last week the only writing I did were a few final edits to a piece I submitted for the writing workshop coming up in two weeks. It wasn't a zero writing week but it was below my hoped-for minimum. But last week I had to attend a run through for an April play, prepare for a sign through for the play I'm interpreting this week, and I was preparing to interpret a poetry recitation competition. So my linguistic brain was in high demand, as was my time due to rehearsal and research and preparation.

This week I do have a writing date for two hours, which I will keep, Even if I'm writing about how I don't have time to write, I will write. I will try very hard to not write on that topic. But I will write. For two hours.

Otherwise this week I am interpreting a play on Thursday (for which I feel mostly ready, although I want to do a little more work on the hip hop song and digital detox acoustic piece) - and I'm preparing to interpret the state championship poetry recitation finals.

Writing. Is happening. Along with theater and the annual poetry event.