Saturday, April 7th. Holy Saturday, the 46th and final day of Lent.
Today is the final day of lent for 2012 and my 46th straight day of posting here. It was an ambitious goal, but I’m glad I tried it.
Knowing I had this deadline each day caused me to shift gears and begin to think like a writer again. Because one secret to writing well is to avoid sitting in front of a blank piece of paper trying to think of something to write. That way is creative death. The move you make is to open your eyes and begin to look closely at the world around you. Every day you and I encounter enough subjects for 40 or 50 essays. If you want to write, begin by looking at the world around you and noticing things. Every time you see something interesting, write it down in the notebook that you CARRY WITH YOU ALL THE TIME. Writers, you do have a notebook, right?
Then when the deadline is looming, you don’t try to think of something to write. You open your notebook and look through all the ideas you’ve had until one becomes interesting to you again. When I’m on my game, I produce about four ideas for every one that I use.
After Real Live Preacher went away, I entered a period where I felt no need to write. And I stopped looking at the world. It feels good to be back and seeing the world with my writer’s eyes again.
What’s next?
I’m going to take a week off and spend some time migrating this site to WordPress. Then we’ll see how things go. But I feel excited about the future of Tertium Squid.
And I’m very grateful to those of you who have walked with me during Lent. It’s incredibly gratifying and meaningful for me to know that someone out there is reading my words.
Thank you for honoring my writing this Lenten season.
Gordon.
