Dirt-caked treasures

I’m short on time so I’m not going to blog about my MLS experience in Vegas just yet. In fact, right now I have no clue what this post will be about. That’s often how writing seems to go for me — I just start spewing verbiage until some kind of underlying structure reveals itself, and only then do I uncover it and follow its path till I find the end. Occasionally I’ll know the end before I begin, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily a better way to write — at least for me. My favorite part of writing is uncovering something along the way that I didn’t know was there — dirt-caked treasures that glow when you brush them off. They’re the one thing you can’t seek out, since they pop up precisely when you’re not looking. It’s like at twilight, where you can’t see someone in the distance unless you’re not looking directly at them. Same with the sun. And apparently marriage is often the same way. (I had to find some way to tie marriage into this. :P)

I’m trying to see writing that way too, which is a big shift for me because usually I’m kind of scared off from writing unless what I’m going to say is right on my fingertips. Hopefully this will help me to write more.

Coming from the experienced side of the isle, I can tell you that it is better to dig in the dirt and scrape off the shiny stuff before you get cake in the face. Sometimes the dirt is the treasure that warns you of pending doom.

Looks like you forgot to pack your flip-flops for Vegas. Oh well ~ sigh…, at least your readers won’t die of a broken heart. Seriously Ben, I hope that you had a marvelous time. Have a nice day window shopping. Perhaps the woman of your dreams will walk out of the dusty archives in the library when you least expect it.

Like, Andy, I’m trying to see writing that way. I do love it when it happens, i.e. “…uncovering something along the way that I didn’t know was there.” But I still seem to be wanting to be in control and know most everything I plan to say before I say it. It really does work better the other way–I think it has something to do with just letting oneself be guided by the Spirit. Why am I not more trusting and believing? I’ve experienced it with talking too where I did not really know what I was going to say–how to word it, but it came out better in the actual doing of it then anything I had tried to think through all the way. Okay, I’d better send this before I over-fix it!

Andy: And that’s the key — once you can shut off the internal censor, the words just come. Like a Niagara. It can get you into sticky social situations when you say more than you intend to, but that’s the price we writers pay. :P

J: LOL, I’m definitely counting on meeting my wife somewhere in a library. Or a bookstore. :)

Shirley: I agree — overthinking can kill the flower before it has a chance to bloom. It’s the too-many-cooks syndrome, except we’re all the cooks. Letting go is the answer. (But keep in mind I’m talking about first drafts here — revision generally isn’t about letting go.)