FlatLined but Waiting; CPR at the Ready

That’s the best way to describe my writing at the moment.  It’s been weird.  There is nothing going on.  Many days I don’t even think about it, much less that I should be writing.  I still have ideas flit through my head and every now and then I remember there are things I should be studying about the craft.  But even my writing magazines have gone unread in favor of good fiction and absorbing movies (there aren’t many of those these days.) that require a little less effort on my part. Calm, Practicing and Ready

I like to think that I’m still learning something by osmosis, but I have to admit, I put no effort into it. That’s because I’m practicing writer’s CPR:  I’m Calm, Peaceful and Ready.

I’m not stressing about it.  That’s one thing I am grateful to have discovered.  This down time is part of the process.  I know that the wheels are still turning.  I also know that if this writing thing was my bread and butter, then I’d have to be more disciplined.  But it’s not.  I have the freedom at the moment to let it be a passion, and not to worry when the well seems dry.  Because it’s not.  It’s raining elsewhere in my soul and filling the well.  It will be there and ready to go when it’s time.

I did sign up for the OWFI conference today, which was hard in some aspects.  It’s been touch and go as to whether or not we’d have the money for me to do it this year, even though it’s in my backyard.  We finally came into the money I needed to sign up, and it was sooooooooo tempting to just hold on to the money for awhile and wait to see if we needed it for something else.  But I didn’t, because of course something else will pop up that we could use the money for, but that’s not to say it would be any more important.  It’s my one treat of the year for me, and every piece of my heart and head said, “Do it NOW!” so I did.  

Next week is Spring Break.  Lincoln has no plans; Hap is already cooking up nights away with other families.  I’m hoping for an easy week—no lunches to pack!  Yay!—with  little in the way of scheduling, so I can get back to editing.  That is going well, believe it or not.  I have so much stuff working itself out in my head and notes I keep stuffing in the notebook when they come to my head.  I have visions of sitting down and breezing right through, even though I’m going to have to re-type from a hard copy.  My final electronic edition was on a disk that died.  

No time is ever wasted in a writer’s life.  The more doing and observing we indulge in, the more material we have to work with, even if we don’t recognize it as material when it happens.