Tuesday, August 20, 2013

This is your brain on writing


(This "golden oldie" NRJW post was originally published on January 30, 2007.)

I've been writing all morning, and just now I decided to break for "elevenses," as my British friends call it. I made a lovely pot of English Breakfast tea, and just at the end of its steeping time, I remembered that my sugar bowl needed a refill.

I had been composing lines of dialogue as I prepared the tea, my laptop computer sitting just a few feet away on the kitchen table. I started to rush over there and enter the exchange I'd just thought up, but then I paused to say it out loud first. Would it sound as clever as I hoped?

It did, so I said it again. Then, chuckling over my amazing wit, I lifted the teapot and...

Poured tea into the nearly-empty sugar bowl.

I didn't merely start to pour it; I actually filled the container more than half full before I realized what I was doing.

But this was not a problem, I quickly assured myself. In fact, this solved a problem, because now I had something to blog about. Heck, I could even post a photo. So I grabbed my camera and then ran over here to whip out this post. As soon as I hit Publish, I'm going back to writing that scintillating dialogue.

There are two kinds of people reading this right now: those who are wondering how I could have done something so moronic, and those who know how I did it because they, too, are fiction writers.

Maybe we could have a little fun with that second group. Fess up, friends: What goofy things have your bodies done while your minds were wandering in storylands of your own making?

4 comments:

Md Mahbubu Hasan said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

Great post! I love that this little occurrence is all it took for you to make a great post, even with a photo attached. I was making lunch on Saturday, for myself and my cat, and my mind was wondering. I was thinking about all the things I still had left to do in the day. I was also partially still reading a very long text that I had received earlier that afternoon. When I looked up from my phone, I realized that half of my sandwich was missing and my cat's food was still on the counter. I put half of my sandwich in her bowl! She was very confused and not a fan, she was probably hoping for tuna.

Unknown said...

Great post! I love that this little occurrence is all it took for you to make a great post, even with a photo attached. I was making lunch on Saturday, for myself and my cat, and my mind was wondering. I was thinking about all the things I still had left to do in the day. I was also partially still reading a very long text that I had received earlier that afternoon. When I looked up from my phone, I realized that half of my sandwich was missing and my cat's food was still on the counter. I put half of my sandwich in her bowl! She was very confused and not a fan, she was probably hoping for tuna.

Anonymous said...

This is a great post! I love that the first thing you thought to do was blog about it. I think that is where the best stories and blogs come from....everyday life!
I have done many an odd thing when trying to multi-task. I think the most memorable was when I was putting the groceries away whilst writing in my head. Later when I went to cook dinner I couldn't find anything! I had put cleaning products in the fridge, and fridge things in the pantry. It took a good chunk of time finding everything and putting them away in their appropriate places!
My husband was not impressed.