Creative Life – Page 38 – Rebekah Lyn Books

Why Am I Here Cleaning Toilets

Why am I cleaning toilets — Writing Life

The kitchen is all mine again and now the laundry is Bill’s. When he first retired he dabbled in both. I remember him and his engineer friend discussing how they did the laundry. I’m glad I got washing the dishes back. I do have a dishwasher and I really like to use it, but you still have quite a few things to clean up in the kitchen, especially after supper. I didn’t realize until that job was more or less usurped how important doing dishes was to me.

When I was a child, my parents had a restaurant. When things got busy my brother and I washed dishes. We lived in Colorado where many people came to be treated for TB, and the Health Department insisted we use antiseptic in our rinse water. The antiseptic was pink and beautiful.

When we got together for family dinners with grandmothers and such I always had to help with dishes. I enjoyed it because all the women were in the kitchen talking. and I felt like a part of something important and meaningful.

Actually, I am learning how important it is to my creativity to engage in physical tasks. Washing dishes, dusting, cooking, making beds, and yes, even laundry, frees something in us so that our brains are able to work out problems and be roused to new heights of inspiration.

Long ago, a myth about writers said they drank and took drugs and often went crazy. That myth has pretty much been put to rest. There are a few more, though. One, we are rich and have lots of time, two, writers are the most important people in the world, and above ordinary mortals, and three, we must be famous or we’re not really writers.

I’ve recently re-read one of my favorite writing books, A Broom of One’s Own: Essays on Housecleaning and the Writing by Nancy Peacock. The New York Times selected her first novel as a Notable Book of the Year. But, she still had to make a living cleaning houses. It was hard, but the job suited her need for autonomy and solitude. She could think while she was working, and she could listen to books on tape to keep up with her reading. She got many stories from and about the people she worked for. She wrote more books.

A writer friend who had three teen-age children said once when she was cleaning the bathroom she thought humorously, the world waits for me, why am I here cleaning toilets.

Almost everybody has to do that now and again (and again). It helps a lot to know how much our psyches and bodies need to work. Housework and yard work are good for the soul. I for one am grateful that I am able to work and that I have work to do.

What is your favorite job around the house or in the yard? What is your favorite myth about writers?

Julia’s Morning Pages

In her wonderful book, The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron gives parameters for the best writing practice I have ever found. She calls it, “Morning Pages.” You do three pages of handwriting every day, brain drain, as she calls them. We’ve heard of Stream of Consciousness writing? This it is. Go.

Our pastor, Peter Lord suggested something similar many years ago. He called it the 2959 plan. That’s for twenty-nine minutes and fifty- nine seconds of writing letters to God. He published a form journal where you prayed your prayers, jotted down notes and scriptures and described daily miracles as they happened. Since I started doing that, I’ve read many books on journaling and I’ve come to see it as essential to my life.

I have so much to tell you about this practice. It’s wonderful, but I’ll try to control myself. Maybe you already know a lot about journaling, tell me, tell me, I can’t get enough of that wonderful stuff.

This morning I started writing about something that is happening in an organization we belong to. I wrote what she said, what he said, and several times I got that Eureka feeling of seeing something I haven’t understood before. Those insights are priceless. I would not find them any other way. During morning pages, I can work out things about my writing too. Characterization, plot, scheduling, and organization. Here’s a poem that evolved from my journal today:

Keeping Track

The government may shut down.

No new mall will come to town.

But I can write and I can paint,

Sometimes husband is a saint.

Something good may soon be sold

It seems life is stuck on hold.

But my home is safe and cool

I’ve got it good. I’m no fool.

Things are changing, there’s no doubt,

God prevails, don’t leave him out.

Writing Life~Everyday Villians

Writers talk about the oddest things. When Rebekah Lyn and I were on our way to the Indie Book Fest in Orlando, we were talking about our characters and the books we’re working on. I told her I thought my villain might be a sociopath. For some reason I had never known that there were people in the world who had no conscience, but once I found out, I slapped that designation right onto my villain. And really what better profile could a villain have?

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who had been thinking about sociopaths, or psychopaths, as they are also called. To my surprise and delight, Rebekah Lyn said she had been doing research and had a book on the subject. She offered to lend it to me and when she came to visit, she brought it.

The book is called, The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout, Ph.D. When I read the title, chills ran up and down my spine. Research has shown that about 1 out of every 24 people is a sociopath. That must mean that some time in my long and happy life I must have known a few. My dear husband and I have been talking about it for the last couple of days. Every hour or so one of us will say, what do you think about so and so? Was he one, or was she one? Am I one? Are you one? Believe me if you are able to ask that question chances are excellent that you are not.

Dr. Stout treats, I would like to say ministers to, people whose lives have been made miserable by those with no conscience. Can you imagine having one for a parent? Sociopaths can lie, cheat, steal, betray, and charm—oh, they are so good at charming people. Charming is their m o, as is making a play for pity. Dr. Stout kindly gives thirteen warnings, which I am going to heed assiduously. I pray for discernment and I know God gives it to me.

It would be good for you to get the book for yourself. Maybe it will help you with your villains, too. Here are a few notes:

1. Accept that the person really is a sociopath,

2. Rely on your instincts,

3. After three whoppers cut your losses and skedaddle.

It goes on from there, but that’s enough to give you a running head start and turn an insipid character into a thrilling personality-as in thriller. A small percentage are killers, but all need human contact so they can have the pleasure of seeing others in pain, otherwise they are as Dr. Stout says, bored and hollow.

I always wondered how anyone could be a career executioner, and now I know, though they can have ordinary jobs and yes, well, live next door as well. Only two out of ten imprisoned criminals is a sociopath, most of them are too wily to get caught. But as Martha Stout says, “I vote for the people with conscience, for the ones who are loving and committed, for the loving and generous souls.” That’s me, that’s my story, and oh, I thank God for my conscience I’d rather have that than all the gold or fame in the world, wouldn’t you? Without that precious inner guide there can be no joy, no love, no happiness, and no peace.

Enjoy Writing,

Love,

DiVoran

Writing Tip by Divoran~Pumpkin Soup

The holidays are on their way. We like to start planning early. This year we’re doing a de-construction menu. What you do is make different dishes from traditional recipes. For instance, you might make a turkey casserole with dressing and cranberries instead of a roasted turkey with stuffing inside. You can find recipes to use or you may make up your own. I think I’ll make pumpkin soup.

It’s the same way with writing. You can take things that have already been written, either your own, or someone else’s, and deconstruct and reconstruct them. Is that cheating. Is it unoriginal? No. The Bible says there’s nothing new under the sun and if anything is true that is! So how do you keep your work fresh and original? You use whatever you have as a launch pad for you’re thinking. I use cookbooks to get ideas for cooking and then change the recipes into something that suits me better. For writing, I use books, magazines, poems, paintings, people, and nature, what else is there…use that too.

Originality is not in saying something that has never been said before. How possible would that be? Originality is saying it the way you see it, understand it, and feel it. Try your best to write well and really communicate and you’ll have all the ideas for creative writing you could ever want.

One thing that’s fun for me is to know what’s supposed to be happening in a certain month. October is National Clock Month, Right Brainers Rule Month, and Dryer Vent Month. What? Dryer Vent, oh yeah, that’s what Jill Badonsky says in The Awe-Manac. Great. I have a story about a critter that got into our dryer vent. See how it works?

Now about the pumpkin soup. I’ve read some recipes and I have eaten about a ton of pumpkin pie in my lifetime, so let’s see, I’ll start with pumpkin. I may have to experiment a bit, toss some mistakes, or eat them in spite of their not being perfect. I’m not sure whether I’ll share the recipe or not. It’s too difficult for other people to follow exactly the way I do things. That’s originality, too.

Happy Writing

Love, DiVoran