Christian romance author Brenda Coulter discusses writing, life, and the writing life.
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?
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4 comments:
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.
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.
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.
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