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Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Where Do You Think?

On to the post...
I am a thinker.
Sometimes I even use both halves of my brain, but probably not much more than the national average of 10% of the whole brain. I’m no genius.  
I think best (no not on the toilet, but good guess) when I am driving. YIKES—public service announcement to all of my fellow motorists out there: I space out when I drive. Stay off the ROAD!!!
I am never in the car, well the half of my brain I’m not using for motor functions and special reasoning isn’t anyway. Good thing we have two halves, right?
So my creative side, right or left I can never remember which, is usually standing at the end of some desolate dock overlooking the Puget Sound in the middle of the night watching two characters (vampires, werewolves, fallen angels—I’m not bias) doing some dastardly deed or throwing nasty one line zingers back and forth.
Eventually, if I’m driving for long enough, I slip into one of the characters or all of them just to get a feel for my surroundings. By the end of my drive I can describe every sight, sound, taste and feeling that happened on that dock with those characters in that moment.
Kinda weird to think while driving, right?
Let’s think about this.
In our homes and offices, there is too much of us. Too much of our lives to interfere with building a scene for characters that, yes have some of us in them, but for the most part are fictional. (NOTE: you can’t write a believable character without having lived at least a little of their lives—whether it is on paper through planning them out or personal experiences—IMHO, of course.)
On the road, where a car existed a second before there remains no trace of them once they’ve gone. There is no established life to work through, or around when you drive. It’s just a path that leads to everywhere and nowhere. Hopefully it leads to something, but if it doesn’t we are writers, we are creative, we can give it an end.
So I drive.
And I think.
Where do you think best? At a desk? On a toilet? (gross by the way) Driving? Tanning? You tell me.
Happy Writing,
J

12 comments:

Laura Eno said...

Sitting on the patio, staring off into space and at night as I'm trying to fall asleep. :)

Bast said...

In the shower ... where I have no pen, pencil or paper to note down my ideas.

Unknown said...

Oh my gosh, I have the EXACT same experience when I'm driving! I totally zone out, watch these detailed scenes in my mind, and then suddenly "wake up" and not have noticed my surroundings for a scarily long time! (Watch out, other drivers...)

The other two places that I most often zone out in and get fabulously inspired are the gym and the shower (oh... um... how many times have I washed my hair now..??). All three of these places lack pen and paper. Not very useful...

pandoraschoice said...

I think best in the shower as well. I guess that happens to a lot of people, though, because I randomly saw notepads that stick to the shower wall and are somehow waterproof for just the kind of people who have inspiration strike in the one place you can't bring paper!

Lydia Kang said...

I think best in a dark room when I'm putting my kiddies to sleep. Maybe it's the sensory deprivation of darkness and quiet, but my minds comes up with some excellent ideas in there.

Jodi Henry said...

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.

And the shower is one of my places too. It seems as though where ever jotting ideas down is near impossible, I will think of something good to put in a book.

My husband has had a few laughs as I run from the shower to my laptop (wrapped in a towel) to get something written before I lose it.

J

Michael Kearney said...

Nothing like the tanning bed rays jump starting the brain.

dolorah said...

LOL; I think best when I'm driving, and when I'm cleaning. Sometimes I think the only reason I clean is for the think time.

And boy, do the ideas roll. Sensually rich, perfectly polished. Then I sit at my computer with all that rumbling through my head and . . lose it all in the process of writing.

Maybe we both need to invest in a recorder so we can talk out our thoughts and transcribe them later to the page.

So nice to know someone else doesn't know which side of the brain is the creative one :)

........dhole

dolorah said...

PS; I love the excerpt page. Did you polish it? It really looks good.

.....dhole

Jodi Henry said...

Donna--I have a friend who uses a little VW Bug tape recorder that's mounted to her dash when she drives. Sadly, she lives in a nother state and doesn't use her Facebook as often as she should. Next time I talk to her, I will be asking where she got that little thing. It would be so handy for us driver/thinkers...aka: Writers.

And THANKS!! You so made my day with that second comment. The chapter excerpts I am putting on the sidebar are unedited. If I edited I would never make forward progress. That's part of the reason I am NaNoing, to teach myself to write without looking back and redoing. (there is no time for it during NaNo).I am so bad at that.

Thanks for stoping by.

J

Michael Di Gesu said...

Hi Jodi,

I just stopped by to say "Hi." It looks like you're doing well with NaNo. Congrats on your progress. I really liked your excerpt. Your description is fantastic. Good job!

I read your comment on Roland's blog that you'd be doing a chapter of all dialogue. If I can make a suggestion to you ... don't. I just had my manuscript edited by an accomplished writer and he SCREAMED at me that my ms read like a screen play and not a novel. He stressed that there should be an equal balance, and if you can mange it less. Your excerpt has a wonderful balance with less dialogue.

I had the worst time turning dialogue into prose. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. This, of course, is just an opinion. You can do as you like. I just wanted to share my experience with you.

Congrats on your blogfest coming up. It sounds like a lot of fun. I'm also happy to see your readership growing. I've missed you at my blog. You were so nice to help me with my story. Anyway, I know you're busy writing, but when you take a break please stop by and visit. I'd like to see you.

Michael

Michael Di Gesu said...

It is funny that we were at each other's blogs at the same time! I'll look forward to your new post tomorrow. I like that you taking us along on the ride.

Keep up the good work.

Michael