Tuesday, April 24, 2018

SOL Tuesday: Writers Living in the Real World


I have been relishing reading Jane Yolen's words from Take Joy: A Book for Writers (The Writer Books, 2003). Recently I came across this passage: 

"I realize writers must live in the real world. That means cakes, letters, bills, clogged toilets. That means reading other people's books, watching TV, doing crossword puzzles, chatting on the phone. That means taking children to school, to the orthodontist, to choir practice, to basketball games. That means working till 3, till 5, till 8, till midnight. That means vacuuming the living room of cat hairs, dog hairs, husband's hairs. That means running to the grocery store, the paint store, the shoe store. That means going to the doctor, the hair salon.

That means...life.
Besides, without life, what is there to write about?" 

I often think about this. That is, how do I lead a writerly life when there is always so much life going on? I don't have the luxury of spending hours working on writing-at least not the kind of time that I would like to devote to writing. Yet Jane Yolen reminds me that most writers "must live in the real world," just like me...driving my children to music lessons, checking assignment notebooks, making dinner, walking dogs, co-leading Girl Scouts, unending laundry...my to-do list is endless. 


For me, my most productive writing time is early in the morning, well before anyone else in my house is awake. My goal is always to write three pages a day, using Morning Pages. As I have written about before, my writer's notebook is filled with lists of gratitude, Heart Maps, and Haiku - mostly about the most mundane parts of my daily life. 


Writing helps me appreciate life around me. It helps me change my perspective. 

Poetry Everywhere (T&W Books, 2005) describes a Lune as a poem that includes three words in the first line, five words in the second line, and three lines in the last line. It is similar to Haiku poem except it is simply counting words instead of syllables. I wrote a Lune poem about my writing routine:  

Before sunlight streams-
Pen to paper. My daily routine:
Uninterrupted writing time. 

5 comments:

  1. Love the lune, especially your use of the colon in it. It seems to me that w/ out life and all you mention about it, we’d gave nothing to write about. Life is poetry and prose. Still, we’re my husband not a domestic diva, I would not make it through the March and April writing marathons.

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  2. I love the spirit of your post, especially about needing to change our perspective and actually appreciate all that life has to offer us, rather than lament the craziness of it. This was very appreciated this morning!

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  3. Thanks for this. I think I need this reminder. I try not to get my knickers in a twist about writing expectations and leave myself space to lag and get behind and maybe catch up (whatever that may mean). Slicing has helped me accept both the natural boundaries of both life and writing and how these can shift and stretch based on context. And I meet fellow writers like you and Glenda and others who are coping with several of the same challenges. I may try a lune some time soon. Thank you.

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  4. I enjoyed reading your reflection. You have established a writing routine, you have collected daily words, you live your life fully - so much to celebrate.

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  5. This reflection resonates with me. I can’t write without quiet and if my routine gets disrupted I struggle.

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