23 April 2013

The Pattern leads to the Matrix…



Okay, so I’m being a little goofy with my title today. However, I’m trying to make a point with it.  The big thing the machines tried to build into the Matrix was an easily followed routine, a pattern that they could control.  The biggest thing that broke their routine was human free will, which didn’t always follow the most logical of patterns, the most logical of routines.

What on earth am I talking about with this post and how does it relate back to writing?

Everyone enjoys a routine of some form. From the same wake up time every day to the same bed time every day, we establish routines in our lives. So it is with our writing lives.  We follow the same path to the keyboard or the pad of paper every time we chose to approach our writing.

If this routine is disrupted for any reason, we find ourselves out of sorts.

This disruption could be something simple like we don’t have our glass of caffeine beside us when we sit to write because we ran out. Now we just don’t feel the draw to the written word like we usually do.

The disruption could be something notably major, like a family member in the hospital or the loss of the laptop. Having to be on the road when we normally write or worse not having our usual composing medium sets our teeth on edge. The ability to create hides from us.

Okay, so how do we go about fixing it?

Some things are simple fixes. Buy what you’re missing and your routine resets.

Others require more surgery to your daily routine to reestablish the pattern you need to find your writing spirit.

Let me offer an example from my own life.

My mom was recently admitted to the hospital due to unknown reasons. The doctors are still running tests. In her lucid state, my mom made me her point of contact for the hospital should she become unable to make medical decisions.  I’m now having to drive 40 miles one way to get to the hospital to talk to doctors. My usual writing routine is shot as long as I have to deal with tracking down medical professionals. Added to this stress, my laptop power adapter broke so I can’t charge it right now. That was my primary composition tool. Fortunately, all my writing is backed up on flash drives, but I just can’t bring myself to sit and write at one of our big computers in the house.

My fixes haven’t been pretty, but they have done the job for now.  My writing time shifted from week nights and weekends to week days at lunch. I have less time to do the work, but I still have time to get it done. As for the actual writing act, I am falling back to my old pattern I did before  had a reliable laptop. I write by hand then transcribe the work into the computer. It seems like double work to do that, but it also allows me to edit it some as I enter it, so it reads cleaner.

So remember, a routine is an important part of a writer’s life. Finding one that works is your friend, but finding ways to work around routine disruptions shows your creative skills.

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Today's post was inspired by the topic “Routines” as part of the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour, http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com/. This ongoing tour allows you, the reader, travel around the world from author's blog to author's blog.

Don’t miss tomorrow’s posting over at: http://suesantore.com/

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com

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