13 Thursday: The Write Way
1. Blogger, Absolute Vanilla, recently compared the task of editing her new manuscript to childbirth, in contrast to the flush of writing the first draft, which she compared to sex. “I don’t know about the rest of you but for me, the first write of a new story is one magnificent adventure – it’s passionate, intense, exhausting but entirely wonderful. Erm… just like good sex…” she wrote.
2. “That’s a great analogy. It also works for the fact that the writing is better when you wait until you’re in the mood and just can’t keep your hands off the pen,” I answered in a comment.
3. I often don’t know what I’m thinking until I write it down, and the reason I like writing is because I’m still surprised by the things I write down.
4. Wordsmith and prolific blogger, Bonnie, recently gifted me with a thoughtful blogger award. I wonder if she guessed that I was a five on the enneagram, an ancient system of personality types, and that fives are regarded as the “observers and thinkers and investigators.” Thanks, Bonnie.
5. I’m not good at waiting in doctor’s offices. When a worst case scenario unfolded last week on a dental procedure gone wrong, and I discovered that my dentist had gone out of town, I found myself in a doctor’s waiting room with a painful swollen face ready to accept painkillers and antibiotics. After waiting in the waiting room for at least half an hour, I got excited when the receptionist finally called my name, only to discover that I was being led to a second room where I sat by myself without a People magazine and waited another half an hour.
6. The whole waiting room thing reminds me of purgatory, or a Woody Allen movie.
7. On my ride home from my dentist-returned-from-vacation on Monday, I was driving behind a man on a motorcycle. His girlfriend (I assumed) had her arms wrapped around him. She was wearing short shorts with her bare legs exposed and a seafood T-shirt that said “Get some Tail.”
8. I went to a community meeting at the Country Store Tuesday night. The subject was on promoting the use of green infrastructure planning to meet the demands of future growth in our area. Among other things, I learned that people weigh less in the mountains than they do in the flatlands and that zoning should not take the place of birth control.
9. The hosts of the event served us a choice between barbecue or hotdogs. After twenty-one years of living in Virginia, I finally had to ask what barbecue was because where I come from (MA) it’s a way of cooking and here (VA) it’s a specific menu item. Well cooked pork.
10. Yesterday was an “8 person line at the swimming pool diving board” sort of hot day.
11. It was so hot that the above was the only sentence I wrote all day.
12. In the past few weeks, I’ve been scouting for art to hang on the walls of the Hotel Floyd Writer’s Room. Originals tend go from a couple hundred to a thousand, which made me wonder who would buy a poem? What is an original poem worth? Would you miss poetry if it was gone?
13. Writer’s need books like artists need canvases, and yet, we generally let a few publishers decide who can get one.
Thursday headquarters is here. My other 13’s are here. View more 13 Thursday’s here.
August 9th, 2007 9:50 am
Thank you for visiting my TT.
I hate waiting rooms. Yesterday I got stuck in one with a obnoxious brat who was running around screaming “I AM OBNOXIOUS” (His Mother apparently thought it was cute, cause she never did anything other then smile a rather spaced out smile).
August 9th, 2007 10:12 am
What a list! You have a very honest blog..Ill be back to read!
August 9th, 2007 10:18 am
Writing is hard. Self editing is hard. My editor is an evil human being with claws and fangs and can only leave the house at night!!! At least that’s how I see her 🙂
August 9th, 2007 10:22 am
I love your mind…waiting compared to purgatory and a Woody Allen movie…brilliant! I wish my randomness was as entertaining. You Rock Colleen (hope the painkillers and antibiotics are working!)
August 9th, 2007 10:26 am
i saw you writing down that comment about the weight differential at Blue ridge altitudes and i knew it would show up somwhere else. i love how observant and preservant you are. good crack deserves a preserver and conserver like you. especially when you so creatively re present these gems in original wordplay compositions.
ps. you missed a delicious freshly delivered gourmet italian meal mike had waiting for my arrival. i’ll take you to the restaurant next trip xoxo;>
August 9th, 2007 10:35 am
(xo) !
August 9th, 2007 11:34 am
If you are a knitter or crocheter a waiting room is an opportunity.
August 9th, 2007 12:34 pm
I love your questions about poetry.
August 9th, 2007 12:36 pm
Waiting rooms are aweful. Ever notice how if you are late the office is upset, but If the Dr. is late it’s ok?
Boy has it been hot, I’m in Delaware and the only thing I seem to be able to do is run from AC to AC. Happy TT!
August 9th, 2007 12:38 pm
Mmmmmm, barbecue. I wonder whether it was the vinegar type (North Carolina), the mustard type (South Carolina/Georgia), or the ubiquitous red Texas type?
One of my friends has a soduko (?) sodoku (?) book—you know, those little puzzles with numbers—that she carries with her everywhere. I’ve started hauling my laptop with me; it works magically to bring the nurse out just as you’ve got yourself settled (like washing your car brings rain)…
August 9th, 2007 12:54 pm
Owie! Hope your tooth is better!
I love that question on what someone would pay for poetry!
August 9th, 2007 1:01 pm
I should have pulled out the kaleidoscope that I keep in my pocketbook, but I just wasn’t feeling in the mood. I did have my notebook and knitted a few words together, but I’ve never been one who could write much in public places, like Natalie Goldberg. Writing in restaurants (or waiting rooms) is the equivalent to trying to sleep on bus to me.
I was under the impression that the BBQ was just pork cooked to fall off the bone and then you put BBQ sauce on it, but I never had one. Should have.
Yes, I was a few minutes late for my appointment and was worrying. My husband recently went through the whole rigmarole, made it to the solitary confinement room, waiting 20 minutes there, and then had to leave because he had a client waiting back in his office.
On another occasion I came out of the second room and asked for some food because I was about to die of low blood sugar. They might need to consider vending machines in those rooms.
I’m off to look up the word “rigmarole.” It’s my favorite word today.
My fingers are sticking to the keyboard, even with the fan blowing.
August 9th, 2007 1:30 pm
Don’t mention a dentist ! the idea of going there makes me shiver !
August 9th, 2007 1:55 pm
The Penguin Post… lol I forgot to put my latest TT in the TT category on my blog.. You though you were confused, I counldn’t figure out what everyone was talking about in my comments! LOL Thanks for stopping by and helping me see my mistake!!
But Bill’s TT about Being a Penguin was very funny!
August 9th, 2007 3:27 pm
Tooth pain is the worst! I’m sorry. I hope you feel better! Very funny about the second “waiting room.” It’s so true! Why can’t they just leave you in the magazine-filled waiting room until it’s your turn?
(And why can’t they ever stay on schedule?)
Happy TT!
August 9th, 2007 4:38 pm
I like that if I visit a mountain I can eat a bunch of ice cream and catch up to what I weigh down here at the ocean. But then… I’d have to jog down the mountain in hopes of arriving at my original weight at the shore.
I identified strongly with #13.
August 9th, 2007 5:02 pm
I had the same wait as you yesterday…followed by the pleasure of a PAP. Yuck.
Colleen, Colleen, Colleen…#9…really? I love me some pulled pork!
August 9th, 2007 6:27 pm
First off, Happy TT! I know about the thrill of writing the first draft and the agony of editing all too well. Also being impatient in many ways, I can empathize. However, the gem of this post (for me) was the fact that you stated people weigh less in the mountains…that was on #8. This really gives me some food for thought.
August 9th, 2007 8:02 pm
Definitely one of the cooler random TTs out there… Thanks for visiting West of Mars — come back and play with the fictional band some more!
August 9th, 2007 9:16 pm
I am with you on the Doctors waiting room. Our GP, has a time booking sysytem… I do not know why as when you book for 4pm, it is generally 5.30 or 6pm (his closing time) when you get to see him!!
Here from Michele’s this morning… (and about to go look at the Echinatia (sp) flowers below again, they look GREAT!
August 10th, 2007 1:42 am
In answer to your question…yes, I would miss poetry for sure. I am in a habit now of reading anthologies right before I go to bed at night. I can’t get enough poetry.
August 10th, 2007 2:41 am
Writing is a beautiful task… As it is reading what talented people writer!
It’s been too hot over here too. Can’t even read! so my pile of books consists of only 6: Harry Potter here I come, half way the 1st book.
August 10th, 2007 9:08 am
i always want to lie down and take a nap when they bring me in my ‘room’ at the doctor’s office. i’m with you…you get so excited b/c they call your name, and then sometimes end up waiting even longer once you’re in the room. plenty of time for a siesta!
embarrasment at them walking in on me drooling keeps me from doing it….. 🙂
August 11th, 2007 4:51 pm
OMGosh I HATE waiting in the Dr.’s office! When I was pregnant and went to the OB I sat for 3 hrs! She has 2 deliveries and 1 was twins!