Jun 08 2008
Free Write: Time
Apropos of the type of writing I’m about to do, I’m going to use an online timer since I don’t feel like getting up and using the timer on my microwave.
I’ve been meaning to try free writing – just writing what ever pops into my head for a set time and I’m not even sure if I have to pick a topic to start on but if free writing is about flow and no rules, which I am guessing it is, well…I’ll go with the flow.
I’ve been inspired by Urban Thought’s Free Writing, especially having “known” him for maybe a year now. For someone who started his blog not thinking he was much of a writer or even a writer, I think he’s found his voice.
So on to the subject of my Free Write: Time
Uhoh. So the stopwatch is counting down.
Time waits for no one. It’s true. It marches on. We start out thinking that it’s some type of endless bucket and jeez, what kind of metaphor is bucket but maybe that’s dredgeing up something from my subconscious – yeah, like you can’t empty the ocean with a bucket or it would take you forever to empty the ocean with a bucket.
So..let’s toss that metaphor and move on.
Of course I think about time – marking time, wasting time, hoping that I get things done..in time. Yet there is no real time. It’s false. We tick it off to make it make sense but it’s just all there. Eternal. Here I am at some halfway point in my life – if I live to 86 – and it both feels like I have all the time in the world and I have no time.
Yet time has this power over us. It drags our bodies down. Literally. Gravity over time = wrinkles = sagging = aging. I think I listen to my mom too much. She comes up with all sorts of reasons why people look the way they do and why things hurt when you get older.
We fear the march of time. I wonder about it. Here I am with a 25th high school (Good freakin’…) reunion and I recall who I was at the time – some 88 lb argyle-sock wearing GIRL in a navy parka and Birkenstocks and of course I had a massive backpack, we all did. Now here I am a 97 lb woman..a WOMAN and I who would have know it. I certainly had no clue I’d become who I am now. Actually, who I am now is pretty damn good. I think about who I was then, this 18 year old and I see that I was so afraid to let the me I am become. I see that that there is more me to become.
Of course that will take…time.
Time is steps over a journey from soul to soul to growth. Maybe I won’t use my time wisely. But maybe I’ll learn something.
I keep wondering and sometimes it seems that.
….
Well..I ran out of time. So there you have it. Ms. Q…unedited. OK. So I used a the backspace key and corrected typos as I went but now you have maybe some idea of the way my mind works.
Thank you, Urban Thought, for inspiring me to try Free Writing. Those 10 minutes? The time, it did fly.
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Awww… Ms. Q… How clever you are.
I’m loving it. Time is one of those subjects that have so much going for it.
Trying not to correct what we consider mistakes is the hardest part of a free write. That backspace… those misspelled words, grammar and the like… It can get to you.
Loving the flow. Thank you for the compliment and the shout out.
Oh I remember doing these kinds of activities in school. I actually enjoy doing it as well because it’s a totally free expression. At the same time, I also enjoy the very strict requirements (like poetry) because it makes me try to creatively use the medium. Which do you prefer?
I’ve started keeping track of time by cable bills. If something I’m looking forward to is three months away (which sounds sort of far off) I think, “it’s only three cable bills away … those things seem to come daily.”
All: This past week I had no time to write! Go figure!
UT: Thanks for the tips and the compliments. I love how your writing is progressing!
Derek: Strict or free expression? Hmmm. I would say I like both but maybe tending towards strict. It’s taken me a while to break free of first being grammatically correct and then to start adding my “voice” and then to start letting loose.
When it comes to writing, I believe there is value in trying different styles. I read a lot and have seen many different styles.
delmer: cable bills? Huh. I’m trying to figure out how I track time and I think it’s more like people’s birthdays.
I definitely think that there’s value in trying different styles out. Just like there’s value in trying a lot of things out. At the worst, you can just realize that it’s not for you.
Of the specific forms of writing that you’ve done (or at least tried), which do you like best?
Derek: I like using dialog to characterize as opposed to writing, “She was snooty.” – so I would rather select “snooty” words than write that a person was snooty.
Many books on writing advise : “Show don’t tell” and it’s been fun to try to write this way. I have been playing with short sentences – I used to write much longer complex sentences but now I tend to break thoughts up into shorter sentences. But that can also be boring or tiring. Writing has a rhythm and flow – the word choices, the sentence structure – all have a way of affecting the mood of the reader.
I’ve tried fictional writing and I found it’s not my strength. People seem to like my voice as opposed to a fictional character’s “voice.”
I’d say that the essay is the closest thing to writing that I like best, which is odd since I had to crank them out for high school. I like taking a thought or idea and wrapping it up tidily.