Projects, lists, etc.

Hope you are enjoying the summer!  I am not doing a lot but I am enjoying the "unstructured time".  The days just fly by (a symptom of getting older).

I am reading Michelle Obama's biography right now -- Becoming.  She was a very determined and ambitious person who would not have frittered away a whole summer, like I'm doing.  I also read a book called American Wife which is a fictionalized account of the life of Laura Bush, the wife of George W. Bush.  This is not the sort of book I would normally read (and Laura Bush is not really interesting to me) but I read a review and decided to dip into it and it was quite interesting.  Everyone can be interesting if the right writer takes a look at their life.  The author's name is Curtis Sittenfield and I read an article that she wrote giving advice about how to write a short story.  Lots of people have wanted to get their creative juices flowing during the lockdown and I thought her advice was good and decided to share it with you, in case you are thinking you'd like to write something.  I think this applies to any kind of writing and can even be extended to any project you might have in your head but not in your hands, so to speak.

So here is her advice:
1.  Choose a time to write -- maybe Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 2:30 or whatever.  Then stick to the times you chose!
2.  Think about what you want the story to be about.  You can make an outline if you like.  Focus on what happens.  If you're not sure how to do an outline or plot a story, read a story you like and do an outline of it to see how it is put together.  (This would be sort of like working backwards -- I always used to do this when I had to make an outline at school.  I couldn't do the outline until I had written the paper!)
3.  Write!  (During the times you assigned yourself, don't do other things, like "check your phone" or clean the bathroom.  If you aren't physically writing, you need to sit there and think about what you want to write or just write randomly, but don't say, "oh, I'm just going to google who that actor in Peeky Blinders is" or whatever.  This is writing time, not "avoiding writing" time.)
4.  Stick at it and don't edit or reread it until you're done.  Sittenfield says just read the last sentence you wrote the previous time and start there.  You can edit it once it's done.
5.  Once you feel like you are finished, read it over, but don't edit for a couple of days.  Let it sit.  Start a new writing project, or write a song lyric or a comment on my blog or something!

I am trying to get my Decameron play finished, and I'm on act three.  I think I will take Sittenfield's advice and see if I can get it finished.