A writing day

Yesterday I took the day off work to attend a brief virtual writing seminar and to spend the day pondering what to do for my next book. I have lots of ideas, but most of them sound boring or too small to flesh into a full book. Some of my pet projects seem to be stalled for one reason or another. Some ideas sound promising but too labour-intensive to take on right now. I think I feel an historical fiction story coming on, but I'm not entirely sure about it yet, and there would be a lot of research required.

While I was waffling on what to do, the day was wasting, so I decided to scroll through a bunch of ideas and half-starts on an old memory stick to see if anything jumped out at me. I came across a romance/mystery manuscript I began years ago and forgot about. It's already at 53,000 words, which is a solid beginning. So I turned on the fireplace, got myself a snack of raisins, peanuts, and coconut (and there may or may not have been chocolate chips stolen from my baking stash), and spent the day writing.

There are times I feel like taking the time to write is selfish or narrow-visioned, with all that is going on in the world and so much good needing to be done. But I have to say, taking a whole day to just sit with my thoughts and explore creativity was wonderful and nourishing. It has been a long time since I had the luxury, and I had forgotten how all-consuming it can be. It seems I hardly sat down before it was 3:00 and time to go do other things. It was like waking up from a nice nap. Will this particular story end up going anywhere? Only time will tell, but meanwhile, I had a great day!

It's important from time to time to immerse yourself in something you love, something that feeds your soul. Ideally, you also incorporate it in bite-size pieces each day instead of making yourself wait for a rare, dedicated, entire day. You don't thrive just eating one big meal a month, after all. It has to be a habitual part of daily life. Unfortunately, we often let life's Have-Tos squeeze out the more soul-nourishing things.

I dream someday of conducting writing retreats and artist workshops, of offering other people a respite from the world and a time and space where they can make their thoughts tangible. I imagine myself offering to take care of all the little irritating distractions (like cooking) so that they can focus on their passions. You know, it's a small thing we could do for each other, here and now, without having to go on a formal retreat. You cook for me this evening, I'll cook for you that evening, and we give each other a break. You weed my garden so I can spend today writing, and I'll watch your kids so you can spend tomorrow painting...

Cooperative creativity. I like the sound of that.