A Grasshopper Inbetweenie 2/11/23
“We’re all walking each other home.”
Ram Dass
Rochester, NY, a few days ago: The weather is getting very weird. If this was a normal February day we’d be looking at a blizzard this afternoon. The forecast calls for high wind gusts and lots of precipitation. There’s only one problem. The temperature is going into the upper fifties and that precipitation will be drenching rain.
Actually, that’s not a problem. I’m thrilled about it, because February is probably my least favorite month, a time when winter gets wearying and everyone is fed up with wearing bulky clothes, dealing with slush or ice, shoveling, etc.
Not this year. My long term forecast for the rest of the month shows no snow (normal is around 30”).
You’d think February would be a good month for publishing, with everyone stuck in the house skimming the web and social media to kill time. But it’s my worst month traffic-wise. Maybe everyone has left for a warm place. I get that.
One of my favorite places to write is on a lengthy train trip. Next week I’m taking one to New York City, about a six hour ride, mostly along the Mohawk River and the Hudson. The vibe is very meditative unless some kid is playing a video game with the sound on (big train no-no).
But the conductor usually takes care of that.
Usually it’s quiet but during Covid when masks were required I had a college kid sitting in front of me and he did an entire therapy session over the phone and I could hear every word. The issues he was coping with were typical adolescent stuff, girls, self-esteem, etc.
All I could think was that mom and dad must be paying the therapy bill for this stupid conversation with a spoiled kid. And the kid kept taking his mask off to talk, which, at the time, was against the rules (remember that stuff?).
He was warned twice and threatened with being kicked off the train if he did it again. He did and they actually left him in Utica, NY standing there watching us pull away. I guess he’ll have another story for his therapist.
So, how is this relevant to the writing life? That’s an easy one. When I’m on the train, going through beautiful scenery like the expanse of the Hudson, I’m always amazed that most people are ignoring things around them. For a writer, those things are stories.
We don’t have to write those stories, and likely won’t remember them, but they get stored away for future use, whether we know it or not. Like that kid on the train, which just popped into my flow while writing something intentionally random, like this.
This stuff, an infinite stream of stories, is out there, but you have to pay attention. I’ve learned to see events like that kid being out of the train as scenes. I might use them later or they might trigger something when I’m writing and they show up.
If I have one issue with most writing online, it’s that it lacks subtlety. I love it when a writer weaves a story like that kid into a piece, even as a digression, and then finds a way to make it relevant to their topic.
Writers need to pay attention to the world around us. It’s an unending source of material, even if you can’t imagine a use for it at the time.
Don’t just put the earbuds in and go into your own world. Try paying attention.
Serendipity is the writer’s best friend
Enjoy your weekend! M