Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Getting Juices to Flow

I spend time away from this blog thinking of things to write about. Heading into work, raking or mowing, riding my bike are all moments when ideas pop into my head. I think,"Now that would be cool to write about. Yeah if I just had a piece of paper and a pencil to remind me of it later."

I never have the paper or the pencil handy. In truth, the activity that frees up my mind so it can stumble upon the great ideas is better left uninterrupted. Muscles engaged in mindless motion tend to work better if not interrupted. So I hope I will remember but know I most likely won't. I follow through with the plan at the moment and 5 minutes later that wonderful kerneled idea has disappeared.

Okay. I still made a promise to write something everyday if I could. A promise to myself I am trying to keep. So with the great idea wandering out there miles away after touching down for moment in my mind, I have to dig elsewhere for subject matter.

I have tried all sorts of things to finagle a post out of myself. Cruising Photobucket after punching in the first keyword that comes to mind into the search engine. I once concocted a whole post after looking at 40 thousand million pictures based on the word "thong". I can't remember if the piece was worth a second look or not.

I will often think back through my day and see if my damaged short term memory is showing a spark. Try to remember one thing that happened that made me mad, made me glad, or made me sad. Seems there is always something like that in any day. But usually the short term memory is short on spark and hard into hibernation mode. It doesn't like to get stressed out. It turns on for a few hours a day, but only during business hours.

Then there is the Photo Safari. I grab my camera and go outside, inside, or beside and find something to shoot and then write about. This has worked with mixed results. I often end up with 40 pictures of rocks, rotten blown down trees, fungus and ferns.

I am not above poaching from other blogs either. Someone will write a post about something and it will cause me to consider what my take might be. If I had not considered that idea before, writing about it can often give me a perspective I did not know I had.

All of this is fine and dandy. But I find that my best, or should I say, my favorite posts are the ones I never see coming. They are not sought out. They find me. I will sit down and stare at the empty "create" window for a few minutes and then some inner voice will take control of my fingers and I will begin to type.

I used to call this stream of consciousness writing. And at one time I am sure it was. But now I will spew it out. Just let it fly. Pound the keys until there ain't no more. Sit back, take a breath and tear back into it with my editor cap on. Sometimes I toss the whole mess. But sometimes, on a rare occasion I will polish it up into something I can send to the presses.

This post is another attempt at pre-scheduling a post so it will publish while I am trudging and fighting my way south to North Carolina to pack up my little girl and move her back to Maine. This post is not fresh, but frozen fresh and will hopefully thaw out on time to see the light of day on June 24. When you read this I will be hundreds of miles away and most likely muttering under my breath about the last bozo in a car who did some dumb ass four wheeler trick in front of me. Damn I hate driving on I-95.

I'll leave you with this interesting rendition of Alfred Hitchcock. His movies were never dull.

2 comments:

Demeur said...

Mr
If you are at a loss for ideas I came across this from a fellow blogger in Tenn. about the heating oil situation up there in Maine. Here's the link:
http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15203&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=232
Hat tip to Monkeyfister for the above.
Good photos you have by the way.

Gary ("Old Dude") said...

love it love it love---your road trip blogs are great---better than "on the road with Charles Kuralt"---and ya take fun pics too.