Write Now

I have heard many writers talk about writer’s block. I have had impediments in my writing, but after putting the story aside for awhile, I often find that although I hadn’t been consciously working on it, my unconscious mind has worked through the problem. Too often, my brain keeps spinning out more ideas than I can reasonably work on at one time. They keep pouring out and sometimes clog the channels, blurring one story into another.

Other writers ask me why I prefer to hand write my stories instead of typing them directly into the computer. These clogs are the reasons why. I always have several pads: some with stray thoughts, others with Haiku or poetry, and at least one story that I am writing and typing onto a flash drive. It is easier for me to find and scratch a line or two on one of my pads than finding and switching to different entries on the computer.

When I type from a written form, I find I like certain phrases better than the one I had originally penned down. I find that I have jumped from one idea to another. My mind made the jump, but I had omitted the connecting thought. The missing thought would have left the readers scratching their heads.

I consider this time of typing the script as my first edit. It helps to smooth out my thoughts, making sure my point of view is constant, and that I don’t change verb tenses in the story.

I’m not the best at punctuation, although I have improved and as I enter the words, I often catch the places that need a comma, or where I have a glut of commas, or a missed question mark.

Shifting speakers, I sometimes miss a starting or closing quotation mark and when I type it in I do catch it. My editor helps to keep me in line, with my grammar and with my punctuation. She also points out any areas that need strengthened, clarified, or deleted because they distract from or destroys the flow of the story.

I am not a typist and it takes longer than I want, but I can’t afford a secretary, even if one could read my chicken scratch. I have heard pros and cons about the speak-and-type programs for the computer. Until I am sure that it would benefit me, I will keep on with my present system.

Maybe the answer to my dilemma of clogged ideas is to have myself cloned, but is the world ready for two of me?