It’s time to get writing again. There’s not a day that I don’t write. But I write for my clients, not for myself. Except for the occasional thought that I scribble into a notebook or jot down using a memo app on my phone. That’s a handy one to have, especially in the middle of the night, when something occurs to you, you can’t be bothered to switch on a light, grab a pen and tediously write it into a notebook. Just blink bleary-eyed at your screen, which is already on the lowest illumination and hope that your swipes across your little keyboard spit out the words you intend to enter.
I’ve done this a few times. Sometimes I re-read what I wrote in the morning and have no idea how I was able to write that or what I could possibly have meant by it. Those tend to be the best notes.
Be that as it may, in my new flat I have a small room, which is the main reason I really wanted the flat. It’s a nice flat, to be sure, bigger than what I could possibly need, though definitely not huge by any standards – except British ones, maybe.
The room I rented the flat for is my home office. In Germany it’s considered a “half” room. In the UK I once rented a room this size (or perhaps even smaller) as a single room. It’s bigger than most so-called “boxrooms” in London.
My desk is standing right in front of the window, facing it.
On my left, a world map is gracing the wall. On my right, a pinboard/whiteboard will soon be hanging. It’ll be an essential tool for my writing. I like to write pen on paper. Longhand. That’s the way to go. Especially with a decent notebook and a decent fountain pen.
I have not done enough of that kind of writing and I fear my penmanship might have suffered. I’m very fast on the keyboard, which is very helpful, especially when working for others. But writing longhand is, to me, part of the craft of writing. The pen is the tool. The paper/notebook is the receptacle.
I write more carefully, more deliberately. It forces me to slow down my words, my thoughts, and to pay closer attention to what I am writing. It’s ideal for writing a first draft.
Now I just have to decide which idea gets to be poured into the notebook at hand. That will require a little bit of sorting, possible lots of flashcards that have yet to be written. It’s a good thing I keep notebooks close at hand to write those fleeting thoughts and ideas down. But a notebook is not useful when trying to put things together. Flashcards are the way to go. One thought. One card.
I need to figure out what it is I have been working on for half my life now.
And then I need to start putting it together. Word by word.
2clouds 