Thursday, August 2, 2012

Mind games

Day 2 of WFMD Challenge allowed me time to explore the thoughts, some unformed, all unrelated, that have been brewing beneath my alert mind after I finished Ann Patchett's State of Wonder. 

Like any good book, State of Wonder has not only engaged me while I was reading it, but also kept my thoughts turning to it repeatedly after I had finished. 

Judging from previous experiences, however, I probably would have just allow these simmering thoughts to die away unexamined. 

It's never easy to put into words feelings and thoughts that are multifaceted and rich and meaningful in my mind. Sometimes it's easier to just let them stay unwritten. Or so the procrastinating, perfectionist writer thinks. 

This time, however, I have decided to use my allotted 15 minutes to figure out these still nebulous ideas and see where it would lead. After all, 15-minutes isn't a long time. If I ended up with nothing but rubbish, I wouldn't have wasted too much time. 

Not giving myself any expectations of an end product, not having to Write A Review, also made the process much easier.

None of my book reviews came easily. The authors and their agents and editors and friends had invested so much into these books and for me to pass judgement by just having read them once seemed ludicrous. Yet I also wanted to share my thoughts, and so each time I fretted and hummed and hawed before coming up with reviews that I felt did them justice. 

Promising myself that I wouldn't try to wrestle my thoughts into a review relaxed me considerably. Words came out onto the paper with a flow that I don't think I had ever experienced when writing a book review. 

There may still be a review in the future, but by assuring my anxious mind that I didn't need to produce one loosened the grip on that hose through which my words flowed.

On that questionable metaphor, I will stop today's post.

Day 2, completed. 

1 comment:

Sarah Stevenson said...

I've heard good things about this book. The only one of hers I've read was The Magician's Assistant, which was very good, but strange...