free-writing: many thoughts, few words

free-writing: many thoughts, few words

A very short post today because I'm pretty sure I'd otherwise fall asleep right here, right now.

I also don't mind keeping this short because I managed to do a few fiction writing sprints earlier in the day, along with playtime with D, running errands, doing chores around the home – I feel like superwoman!

Having said that, I have the timer running for this sprint. 15 minutes of which only a minute and a half have passed, and there are so many things I want to talk about that I might as well continue typing.

Today is Canada Day! On my morning walk, I saw that a lot of homeowners had decorated their lawns and rooftops with the Canadian flag. It all looked very pretty and I think I'm very lucky to be living in this nation in this current time.

I especially feel lucky to be living in Burlington, this beachside city which is growing more and more diverse every day with the pandemic having pushed home-buyers out of Toronto and Oakville into Burlington, Hamilton, Brantford and such other areas.

It's amazing how much the city has changed in the past year and a half even though we were mostly inside our homes. The thriving real estate sector has changed the face of this city drastically, and I love that several families with young children have moved here, looking for larger homes for their children.

Writing-wise, I worked in timed sprints today and got a fair bit done. I also realised one thing: working over two 15-minute sprints does not yield the same output as working over a single 30-minute sprint. Perhaps it's because the small duration makes me focus more intensely, and it's probably a matter of practice before I can increase the duration of intense, focussed effort.

But ... let me not get ahead of myself.

If 15-minute sprints are working for me currently, I'm happy to keep doing those, and keep taking 5-minute breaks to stretch or fetch myself more coffee. Why rock the boat?!

Another 4 minutes to go on the timer, but my mind is already half-asleep. I'm not even faithfully free-writing, having written and deleted stuff, thinking I wanted to make a more cohesive post of all the points I had in mind.

Also, I'll admit, I'm totally hooked to the work of fiction I started reading yesterday.

As I mentioned, I'm steering clear of non-fiction stuff, all the how-tos with respect to book writing, marketing, promoting, and all that. My focus for the rest of the year is only on writing, not thinking or reading or talking about writing.

And so I count reading fiction as an aide. The more good fiction I read, the more I can study the work and improve my own practice.

Although I'll admit I don't know how the hell to do that. Because I read for pleasure, and I write for pleasure. And the rest of the time I pray fervently that my work will find its audience in this wide, wide world, the readers who will love my books and tell their friends and their lovers about it and, in fact, buy them copies!

Surely that isn't asking for too much!  Even if it is, that's what I want.

À demain!

Image Attribution: Photo by Nong Vang on Unsplash

(I should have gone back and changed the title, considering that I wrote for the entire 15 minutes, but I'm not going to bother.)