Sunlight has filled the sky. From the delightful aroma I can tell my wife is making a breakfast quiche. Egg, ham, chives all these aromas combine together and rise up the stairs collecting and intensifying right outside my office. My ear has detected that one child has showered and is now downstairs watching cartoons. Child two I just rousted and as a result Primus is shambling around in his room deciding what to wear. Coffee is brewing, I made that. Me I am drinking decaf from yesterday. (God I miss caffeine.) C’est la vie. Revival comes on this morning with sunlight streaming down. Life flows again.
The air is warm, a rare state of affairs in recent days. For clarity on the warm part, note the air is at 25 degrees. However in the recent spate of polar air masses overflowing my home that is 25 degrees warmer that the atmosphere has been on recent mornings. A 25 degree swing be it from 60-85 or 0 to 25 is a heat wave. The lad is now up and programing with Python. I won’t let him do this for long, you see Primus’ job is to dig around that blue Prius pulling out as much snow as possible. When we pulled into the driveway last night the car got into the yard but the snow was slick. Until he digs out around it, the car isn’t going anywhere. This work must be done today because the temperature goes back down to 0 tomorrow.
I have no big plans for today. Mostly I think I will write. I want to write every single day. Consistently writing is my major goal for the next several months, something I don’t know if I will be able to accomplish. When I started blogging a while back my initial feeling was that it would be easy. Let me say sitting down at a keyboard and putting something meaningful into readable form is anything but easy.
Over the years I have bought books on writing and grammar. For a long time I subscribed to a writing magazine called in fact “Writer”. The only thing I have even pulled from these sources that has made any sense is that to be a writer you need to have a ritual, a plan, if you would a routine. Some writers thrive putting their words down in the evening. Some make it a nine to five job. Others set out to work in the predawn hours.
The tools of writers vary. Some writers use old style legal pads and number 2 pencils. Some use ink and letter pads. Me I use a computer, the cheapest computer I could find. What I have found is that I am a morning writer. It is when I feel invigorated. My mind is clear. Thus I try to write every day after I have had my breakfast and a hot beverage. Snowy days or sunny I have a window I can look out and see a large pine tree. If I go blank I can just stare into the green world of its branches and refocus. For me the key is making sure I take the time and make the time to capture something.
I guess I did find two other tips in those things I read about writing. The first is write what comes to mind. Just get something down on paper. You can shape it and craft it later. The second is to write until you are done. Try not to break and make the mental mistake of believing that you can pick up a thought just where you left off. By the time you get back from making the bed, turning on the timer, brewing coffee or taking a piss the idea may well (and most likely will be gone).
Did I mention the sun was shining? I have to put on my boots and step outside for a moment.
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