Found yesterday, at Write on Wednesday: Do you do writing exercises or warm ups? Do you think they could be valuable? Have you found warm up exercises helpful in some other area of your life, e.g. art, music, athletics?
When I was a tech writer I used to keep lists of forbidden words, or at least words that would never make it into my documentation: words like cerulean, negligee, slumber, verdant, lintel, haberdashery, and linger. I wrote them down when my energy was flagging, made lists of them when I arrived early before anyone else (living off 101, your choices were to arrive early, or late; I was always early), surreptitiously jotted them in the margins of my notebook during endless product meetings.
Taking a few minutes away from my duties and responsibilities -- writing sober, righteous-minded advice about managing the household checkbook -- to write words that no one would otherwise pay me to write made me feel like I had a secret identity. It made me feel powerful. It also made it easier to get back to doing my job.
Back then, I thought of my lists as warm-ups. And even if they may have seemed to someone else as procrastination (or to me, from my current perspective, as a way of escaping the cool blue professionalism of cubicle prose), they were a way of engaging my writing brain, a way of connecting with words, in much the same way that the scales and arpeggios I practiced every morning re-connected me with my piano, or the way that common greetings (Hey there! How are you?) reconnect us with our family and friends.
These days, I don't have lists of forbidden words any more, but I still need to stretch every once in a while. I try to remember words from the architectural and engineering firms where I once worked (aggregate, slurry, girders, astrolabe) or names from my daughter's collections of monster stories(Medusa, Cerberus, cthulhu). Some days even naming the planets and a few constellations can be more of a mental workout than I care to admit. It is, however, a way of getting out of ruts, of seeing new words in new ways, and it is an exercise I should remember more often than I do.
More often than not, though, like today, I turn to a meme, this one courtesy of the amazing Jeanie. (Torqued transition? Unsatisfactory conclusion to previous points? So be it. That's my state of mind these days. One minute making grocery lists, the next trying to explain the difference between "wo" und "wohin" in German grammar, all the while dreaming of the Lady Eleanor, who has a monologue you may yet get to hear.)
So now, on to other things. Specifically, Seven Things I Love That Begin With the Letter "W" (Besides, of course, Write on Wednesday and Wonderful blogging friends). Are you ready? Here I go:
1) Wine: White wine, red wine, sometimes even rosé. A glass a day. Mostly reds, but occasionally a white. OK, lately it's been mostly whites, lots of geWurztraminer and just a sip or two of a wonderful (and cheap, I think) Australian chardonnay from Shoo Fly that I wish I could find more of somewhere, but winter's coming and soon it will be only reds for certain -- pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, and, I don't care what that guy in Sideways thought, an occasional merlot -- to accompany all the roasts and buttered noodles, and sharp rich cheese I'm looking forward to enjoying.
2) Writers (without whom, there would be no wreading!): William Carlos Williams, James Wright, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, Meg Wolitzer, Evelyn Waugh, Jennifer Weiner, Tennessee Williams, and Virginia Woolf, just to name a few!
3) Walking: miles, every week, lately all on the treadmill. I miss walking through town. I miss walking through neighborhoods at night. I miss walking in Wyoming.
4) The Wind Whistling through White Pines. One reason we have roughly 300 of 'em planted on the back forty, some of them finally taller than either of us.
5) Wool (and Warm things): scarves, mittens, socks, and undershirts. All kinds of warm things. Plus, there's knitting. No one will let me near a camera anymore, but here's a picture of a baby blanket I made a
6) Winter: Yeah, I know. I don't get along so well with cold. But, when I dress for it (see Wool and Warm Things), there's snoW! And skiing, skating, thermoses filled with hot chocolate, being snowed in, shockingly clear night skies, the Archer in the south, Orion somewhere, satellites everywhere, winter hikes under snow covered boughs. It's romantic and adventurous, and I love it.
7) Where the Wild Things Are: Children's books are among my favorite books, and WTWTA is one of my very favorite children's books. Let the wild rumpus start!
Anyone else care to give this one a try? Let me know, and I'll send a letter along to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment