An Uninvited Guest

For several months, I’ve been working on revamping a draft manuscript that I completed about 10 years ago.  It’s called Bits of Wisdom for the Real World because Life Doesn’t Come with Instructions.   I’ve been told that the title is very long.  Uhhhh….this I know.  The title may change.   As of now, it captures the overall theme of the manuscript.  I use the term theme because it is very hard for me to describe exactly what it is in a sentence or two. 

I would say that it is more of a perspective of how to approach life that goes beyond tips.  For example, I’m currently working on a chapter about the work environment.  Everyone knows that they are going to encounter challenges at work.  A tip would be to follow office policies and procedures when presented with a problem at work like communicating your concerns to your manager.   While following policies and procedures, there is also a perspective that we can have to make the most of the experience.  We can be more than a victim when experiencing unfair treatment at work.  We don’t have to be stuck at the place of describing what happened to us over and over again with no real resolve.  Regardless of the outcome, the experience can teach us many things, cause us to grow, and strengthen us in ways we could not imagine or design on our own. 

I had this mid-February date for completion of the final draft.  I’ve scrapped that date and have not set a new one.  Sometimes we think that if we set a date that it will cause things to be completed by that date.   Deadlines are important.  However, I realized that for me it will be done when it is done.  My goal is to continue to work on it.  Just keep at it, as they say.  I needed to set a new goal that wasn't so intimidating or consuming. 

What I did not expect was that another manuscript, a compilation of essays, would begin to emerge once I decided to pick up Bits of Wisdom.  I found this to be quite disturbing.  I prefer order, process and structure.  I don’t like a whole lot of shenanigans.  In my mind, you don’t start something new without completing something else - especially when performing the same function.  I’m committed to writing so it made sense for me to just focus on one manuscript at a time.   Not to mention, I’m also blogging and I'm not just going to post any ole thing.  In summary, I didn’t need another writing project – especially one that was uninvited.  So, initially I rejected this other project that kept surfacing.  I just assumed that the only reason that this other stuff kept showing up was to distract me away from Bits of Wisdom. 

Then I decided to open the door and welcome the intruder.  She was knocking and making so much noise that I wasn't making much progress on Bits of Wisdom.    I say she because we women can be  so persistent and strong and known to keep up a fuss until we get what we want.  I realized that she wasn't going anywhere so when she appeared, I decided to take the time to write down what she has to say.   Because of the advancements in technology, there are places for me to post all of my creative work.  I mostly post my work on my blog and also on wattpad.   Wattpad is an online community of writers where I can post my work and receive feedback while it is in development.  I have 2 works on Wattpad, Bits of Wisdom and Book of Essays.  I couldn't think of a title for the collection of essays so I oh-so-cleverly called it Book of Essays.   So not only has she been welcomed but she has her own friggin room.  Once I gave in to her, miraculously, I’ve been able to continue my work on Bits of Wisdom.   This, I cannot explain. 

Time to Read

Of course I believe that everyone should read.  I enjoy television but books stretch your mind more. Unlike TV, books don’t tell you every doggone thing to think or feel by way of sound and visual effects. There is also the liberal use and reliance on stereotypes.   With a book, your mind has more work to do in terms of experiencing the characters, the scenes and filling in the blanks.  Long after I have finished a book, I continue to wonder about the characters and what happened to them.

I am always challenged with finding the time to read.  I’m a busy lady.  I guess I could find a way to un-busy myself.  When I was much younger, I would read a lot at night while in bed.  As a child, I read throughout the summer.  But now, reading at night just puts me to sleep and as an adult there really isn’t any difference from one season to the next since I don’t get summers off.   

I am amused that I can write at night but I can’t seem to read at night.  I’m pretty sure you have to be able to read in order to write. 

Not too long ago I had a not-so-deep revelation.  I discovered that I could get in some solid reading time during my bus ride to work.  I’ve been riding the metro to work for about a year now.   I would sit on the bus watching other people read.  A few times, I brought parts of the Sunday Washington Post to read.  You can imagine that could be annoying to me and to others.   Even with my long arms, constantly opening and folding and not trying to elbow anyone was a challenge.  And who really wants to listen to a noisy paper being opened and folded repeatedly at 7 am in a crowded, enclosed space?   Although a presumed natural progression, this did not lead me to try to read a book.

Nope.  Instead, I would allow my idle mind to wander here and there.  And just like Ma said, an idle mind is the workshop of the devil.  I wondered why the lady in front of me would choose a wig that appeared to be a bird’s nest on her head.   Other times I would replay a recent experience that left me angry, sad or feeling diminished in some way.  I needed to give my mind something constructive to do.   

Then one day, on my way out the door, I grabbed Amy Tan’s The Opposite of Fate.  I had picked up and put down this book so many times over the last few years.  Just last week I finally finished it.  The book is about her life and her creative process.  She seems to be coming from an honest place.  I learned a lot from it and it will help you to see that you can get your creative work done in spite of life happening to you and in spite of yourself. 

I like to follow non-fiction with fiction.  So I picked up The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah.  I had been hearing about this book for years.  She is taking me on a wild ride that I love.  She is quite clever and I can’t contain my amusement.  That’s one great thing about riding the metro; nothing really seems to be that odd.  It’s perfectly acceptable for me to periodically laugh out loud.   

People We Meet

Workshops are always a great place to meet new people.  It’s especially cool to meet people with whom you share common interests.  During the Publish Now workshop, I met several people.  Two were sitting directly behind me during the afternoon sessions.  When the moderator released us, he said, Be back in 15 minutes, but what they must have heard was, Ready, set, go…complain! 

I un-serendipitously "met" them when I made the mistake of turning around to get a look at these tortured souls.  Of course, when I did they locked me into their trance and talked to me as if I had already been a part of the conversation.  The man and woman continued their rundown of everything they didn’t like about the workshop.  They were so in sync with their complaining that I wrongly assumed that they were a couple.  When one paused the other began, quite effortlessly.   

For some reason, I was more amused than annoyed by them.  Maybe it was because I was having such a fabulous time.   Their primary complaint was that the workshop should have only focused on specific steps to getting published.  They approved of topics such as the legal aspects of publishing, marketing techniques or considering whether or not one should self-publish vs traditional publishing.  They were greatly displeased about the breakout sessions focused on genres such as fiction writing, memoirs and photography.  The last speaker before the break focused on the importance of content and determining whether or not you are really ready to publish.  She is an author and an editor.   She once told a writer that there were only 10 good pages that should be kept out of the 80 page document that had been written.  To that, the man said, What does that have to do with getting published?  I'm thinking it had everything to do with publishing but I smiled anyway.  Then the lady strangely followed up with Yeah, and they assume that everyone here is a writer!  Not everyone wants to write a book.    I guess she didn’t read the first sentence of the promo for the workshop: Our popular annual seminar provides writers with the information they need to publish their work in print or e-book format in today's changing digital landscape. 

At some point, I broke in and said to the lady, Oh, so what are you working on and what are you trying to do?   I was really expecting a passionate and elaborate description of a completed work that she had been desperately trying to get out to change the world.  Instead, she said that she wasn’t sure.  A while ago she started a blog and posted 6 times but then she got busy trying to help her husband with his business so she hasn’t been able to get back to it. 

Wow.