My son started at an art high school this month and his days are long. While he's adjusting, I decided I would pick him up every day downtown and save him the long commute home on a city bus, which adds an extra hour to his long day. I've started to bring my laptop and I go early to get a good parking space on the street right in front of his school. I have no internet access and I just write for 45 minutes. I've discovered that I get so much work done. There's a painting class conducted outside right now and I park right next to the teens working at their easels and the school is in an old church- plus it's my alma mater- and there is something about being near those earnest teenagers in front of this school I loved that just works for me. It taps into some part of my brain that is 17 again and so excited to make stuff. Maybe I should go park there in the morning and just write all day in my car.
I'm thrilled that you found your ideal writing setting! And the fact that you found it when he's just starting school, too, is even better—it'll be yours for so long.
This was EXTREMELY helpful to read. I've been Duolingo-ing at night for the past, oh, hundred days, and am now realizing how awake it makes me feel (plus the buzz of ticking something off the mental to-do list) and how it encourages me to spend more time on my phone at night (a habit I'm trying to break). Thank you for this advice!
Aw, Kara, I'm so glad! I have the bad nighttime phone habits, too—I mean, who doesn't, really?—so doing my little phone things in the morning when I know I'll *have* to relinquish my phone time in order to work is much better for me.
I don't have a routine, but I suspect that's because I'm always writing in my head. Sure, there are times I sit down at my desk and pull together the scraps and notes and emails to myself that contain lines I want to do something with, but those times are less important to me than the time I spend daydreaming and chewing over slippery concepts while trying to coax them into metaphors for the sake of communication.
The differences between your poetry-writing process and my prose-writing process always manage to fascinate me! When it comes to those times when you sit down at your desk and pull together your notes, do you have any sort of routine in place around when that happens? Or is it something that happens when it happens?
I don't have any routine, really, unless you count long moments of staring out the window (or just off in the middle distance) a routine. Sometimes I'll sift through a bunch of notes and/or emailed lines to myself and see if any of them seem aligned with one another (or opposed to one another), but it's a very subjective thing, and not given to much of a pattern that I've noticed.
Some days I'm able to find a sort of liminal space and just type away, and other days I'm just zeroed in on every bit of whitespace, every line ending, every errant sound. There's no form to the process for me, just the form on the page.
I put off reading this post just like I put off writing, but finally got the courage to read it and it. spoke. to. me!!!! Thank you for your candor and honesty. It's helpful to know that the struggle is real!
The struggle is *certainly* real! I’m so happy that I could help you feel a little less alone in it, Jordan. Thank you for your sweet note! Hope you’re able to fit some writing in soon.
I started scheduling Zoom calls twice a week and invited several fellow writers to join in whenever they’d like. The meetings can run without me, but just knowing there might be someone else on the call helps me treat it like a obligation rather than something I do just for me (so it’s not as easy to dismiss as “less important” than other to-dos). I’m thinking about expanding it so I can use that same mentality to write at least 5 days a week.
I admire your Zoom facilitation! The accountability of a Zoom call, even when it's just on in the background, is next-level motivation for me, and I'm glad that you're finding the same thing to be true for you. 5 days a week is a great idea!
My son started at an art high school this month and his days are long. While he's adjusting, I decided I would pick him up every day downtown and save him the long commute home on a city bus, which adds an extra hour to his long day. I've started to bring my laptop and I go early to get a good parking space on the street right in front of his school. I have no internet access and I just write for 45 minutes. I've discovered that I get so much work done. There's a painting class conducted outside right now and I park right next to the teens working at their easels and the school is in an old church- plus it's my alma mater- and there is something about being near those earnest teenagers in front of this school I loved that just works for me. It taps into some part of my brain that is 17 again and so excited to make stuff. Maybe I should go park there in the morning and just write all day in my car.
I'm thrilled that you found your ideal writing setting! And the fact that you found it when he's just starting school, too, is even better—it'll be yours for so long.
This was EXTREMELY helpful to read. I've been Duolingo-ing at night for the past, oh, hundred days, and am now realizing how awake it makes me feel (plus the buzz of ticking something off the mental to-do list) and how it encourages me to spend more time on my phone at night (a habit I'm trying to break). Thank you for this advice!
Aw, Kara, I'm so glad! I have the bad nighttime phone habits, too—I mean, who doesn't, really?—so doing my little phone things in the morning when I know I'll *have* to relinquish my phone time in order to work is much better for me.
I don't have a routine, but I suspect that's because I'm always writing in my head. Sure, there are times I sit down at my desk and pull together the scraps and notes and emails to myself that contain lines I want to do something with, but those times are less important to me than the time I spend daydreaming and chewing over slippery concepts while trying to coax them into metaphors for the sake of communication.
The differences between your poetry-writing process and my prose-writing process always manage to fascinate me! When it comes to those times when you sit down at your desk and pull together your notes, do you have any sort of routine in place around when that happens? Or is it something that happens when it happens?
I don't have any routine, really, unless you count long moments of staring out the window (or just off in the middle distance) a routine. Sometimes I'll sift through a bunch of notes and/or emailed lines to myself and see if any of them seem aligned with one another (or opposed to one another), but it's a very subjective thing, and not given to much of a pattern that I've noticed.
Some days I'm able to find a sort of liminal space and just type away, and other days I'm just zeroed in on every bit of whitespace, every line ending, every errant sound. There's no form to the process for me, just the form on the page.
I put off reading this post just like I put off writing, but finally got the courage to read it and it. spoke. to. me!!!! Thank you for your candor and honesty. It's helpful to know that the struggle is real!
The struggle is *certainly* real! I’m so happy that I could help you feel a little less alone in it, Jordan. Thank you for your sweet note! Hope you’re able to fit some writing in soon.
I started scheduling Zoom calls twice a week and invited several fellow writers to join in whenever they’d like. The meetings can run without me, but just knowing there might be someone else on the call helps me treat it like a obligation rather than something I do just for me (so it’s not as easy to dismiss as “less important” than other to-dos). I’m thinking about expanding it so I can use that same mentality to write at least 5 days a week.
I admire your Zoom facilitation! The accountability of a Zoom call, even when it's just on in the background, is next-level motivation for me, and I'm glad that you're finding the same thing to be true for you. 5 days a week is a great idea!