Yesterday I was hiking a small, nearby mountain with a friend. I always feel my mood shift as soon a I reach the point where the old firs take over. The hike is only a mile, but you can wind around to shorter paths and stretch it out if you want to linger or get in more steps. The east side of the mountain near an extinct lava dome has a view of nearby Mt. Hood and the valley spreading below and sometimes we pause to gaze at the mountain. And sometimes visit at dusk just to watch the sky change.
As I was walking two solutions came to me about the current manuscript I’ve been working on for a client. I drove down to a store before going home and another idea came to me. I pulled into the parking lot and typed it into my phone. And thought about how inspirations often happen while away from my computer and how I sometimes wrote on my hand or arm because I couldn’t stop in the days before I carried a cell phone around. Most often these ideas came when driving along a highway, my thoughts drifting.
This morning I’m in from watering, weeding, assessing where to move hydrangeas that have been crowded out by two sprawling blue spruce trees. I mostly plant taller, thinner tree varieties since I’m creating privacy, but they’re beauties and remind me of my favorite childhood home. Parts of the yard need more sheltering shade, especically now that our summers are getting hotter. I’ve got eight hydrangeas {had to pause and count} four that need relocating and most of my beds are already brimming–but I’ll figure it out. And as always, writing ideas drifted in along with noticing I need to clean the bird baths.
Which got me thinking about how some parts of the aforementioned manuscript need relocating, some parts trimming, and the most important flashback needs more intensity and emotional resonance. Wondering what would happen if I looked at every story as if it was a garden. Because gardens change season by season, year by year. Musing about how everything can feed your writing–including your revising process.
Which now leads to this lovely essay by Karen Palmer on writing in motion based on a road trip she took while stuck on a novel she was writing. Literary Hub features these craft essays weekly. She writes, “Ideas flow in when the body is occupied but the mind is unbound.” I’ve been writing about this for years, also inspired by Brenda Ueland’s important book If You Want to Write many years ago.
Be kind, keep writing, have heart
