THOUGHTS ABOUT WRITING...AND LIFE

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WE "EDIT OUT" 90 % OF OUR SURROUNDINGS!
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A writer once said: "The reason I write is to CREATE something that never would have been otherwise...and to record things that would have been forever lost."

In a writing course I took, the teacher said a startling thing: "It is possible that most adults 'edit out' 90% of their surroundings as they go through life." This intrigued me. Does this mean that we are preoccupied? Does this bear out what we've always  heard---that we only use X percent of our mental facilities? He further made the  point: "This lost 90% is the writer's fodder!"

Maybe it is everybody's fodder. Is it: the sky, the clouds, the cool breeze, the swaying trees? Is it the birds, the flowers, the snails, the inviting grass, the drop of rain; or maybe a mother pushing a stroller, a baby's smile, a contrail high in the sky, the ice cream truck and its perennial "Turkey in the Straw?" It could be sunsets and lying on the lawn and losing oneself in the night sky!

Only each one of us can ponder and figure out if-and-what we are missing. Writing teachers suggest carrying a notebook around with you for a week or two and writing down every little thing you see, no matter how small; even note in the cafe when the waitress drops a napkin...anything you see that's a bit unusual...find out what you/we are missing.

Regular folks, as well as writers, should not miss the 90%.

John Donne's famous poem which begins: "No man is an island...," also says: "For I am involved in mankind."

This is why my guest writers are so special to me. Didn't you enjoy, on Mil's Place, Sue's warm memories of friendships dating all the way back 73 years to grade school?! Bob's "love of marbles," and the story of his "59 cent fishing lure" were priceless! The latest one is from Wylie; the story of five barns on his Clovis-area ranch, when he was a kid! Did you know that much about barns? Wylie told me that his parents "raised"---(I never heard of "reared" on a ranch) nine kids out there toward Grady, on that ranch! They needed those five barns!

Life is sometimes about all the little things... out there in the hundred percent.


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BY MIL
8/24/12








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