Thought seeds

I have things I want to write about or think about. I’d like this flu to be gone so my brain can get back online. Soon, I think. I am definitely better, so soon it should be all the way gone. Everyone says two weeks. I’m at a week and a half, so soon… Anyhow, things I want to think about:

At work, I don’t have a comfortable spot for writing. My desk and chair are not comfortable or friendly at all. Is there something I can do here after my regular work is done and I don’t need to be in front of the computer that will let me get into a more comfortable, creativity conducive configuration? Maybe moving the non-rolling chair in front of the desk would help. After I’m done with my work, I don’t need to be able to move back and forth between my desk and the table behind me, so I don’t need to be able to roll. I just think if I could make myself more comfortable and get my stuff at a better height for writing in the afternoons I might be more inclined to do it.

The next thing—schedules as a way to take care of myself and my writing and creativity. I tend to think of schedules as restrictive. Things I have to do, have to follow, must suffer with and succumb to. But a schedule as a positive thing? Something to look forward to? Something that lets me make sure I’m getting my time for the things I want? I hadn’t thought of that. The creativity coach I am working with said something yesterday about schedules as ways to support and protect our creative lives. Wow! This is an amazing concept to me, and I can feel its import. I don’t know exactly how to get my mind around it in a way to really use this idea yet, but I know it is something that needs to become part of my thinking. I will write more about it in the next few days, I know, probably in my physical journal, but I wanted to get the seed planted here.

Then, yesterday, I saw this writing tip on a blog: “Rarely does anyone skyrocket to the bestseller list. Most writers persevere, learn the craft of writing and expect to apprentice.” Apprentice. I am a writing apprentice. Or I will be. I don’t know if I can consider myself fully apprenticed to the writing life yet. But I love the idea of this, and it feels like something I want to do that will be good and useful.

And last but not least, something else my coach said that I need to think about and write about and get a grip on. She asked me to think about what my creative life really means to me deeply and essentially. And you know the first thing that sprang to mind? That it’s always been something that I felt I had to place in a secondary position. My writing was always something that I could do after I did something else. I could get X job that would hopefully make me enough money so that I would be able to write on the side. It’s always been about trying to find something I could do that would let me have time to write on the side. And it has never worked out. So maybe I need to really be focusing on how I can put my writing in first place.

These are things to think about and write about more. But the seeds are planted now, so the ideas will start to grow.