Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Mon, Nov 23 2009
What would you write if you might not get caught?
I've been more outspoken about some things myself lately, but I know how important it can be to be kind when others are letting stress make them have blow-ups. People need a safe place to let off some steam. Writers build that space for ourselves. We may not write about it in public, but we scribble on napkins, index cards, journals, the sides of grocery lists or the backs of church bulletins. I wonder from time to time what would happen if I wrote something and then got hit by a bus. There are one or two people I trust to share my words with the world in the event of my sudden demise, but if I happened to write something personal on the back of a napkin and was carrying that with me when I was hit by said bus there's no telling who would read my words. The odd thing is, and I say this with a mischievous smile, that I be sure whether this makes me less inclined to scribble personal thoughts on those napkins, or more.
Don't let me frighten readers here too much. I was actually thinking of how this sort of thing could happen to a fictional character. But the fact that it rolled around in my mind for as long as it did makes me wonder if my subsconscious is toying with the idea of trying it out.
Have you ever left a random note in a library book? I don't mean that one should scribble in the book, of course. A small sticky note would suffice. You could recommend another book similar to that one. I know that librarians might remove your note, but they might actually leave it between the pages. I've actually done this in hotel rooms. I've left notes in phone books when someplace I ate had a particularly good (or bad) dish or service. It seemed like a good way to pay things forward to the next person staying at the hotel.
Writing is something writers tend to do because it's part of who we are. Once in awhile it's fun to take a chance with who you are and share that with the rest of the world, even if it's in the smallest of ways. Now I'm smiling again, thinking of all those people who might read this and start paging through their hotel room phone books in hopes that someone left them a note.
posted at: 16:26 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
I've been more outspoken about some things myself lately, but I know how important it can be to be kind when others are letting stress make them have blow-ups. People need a safe place to let off some steam. Writers build that space for ourselves. We may not write about it in public, but we scribble on napkins, index cards, journals, the sides of grocery lists or the backs of church bulletins. I wonder from time to time what would happen if I wrote something and then got hit by a bus. There are one or two people I trust to share my words with the world in the event of my sudden demise, but if I happened to write something personal on the back of a napkin and was carrying that with me when I was hit by said bus there's no telling who would read my words. The odd thing is, and I say this with a mischievous smile, that I be sure whether this makes me less inclined to scribble personal thoughts on those napkins, or more.
Don't let me frighten readers here too much. I was actually thinking of how this sort of thing could happen to a fictional character. But the fact that it rolled around in my mind for as long as it did makes me wonder if my subsconscious is toying with the idea of trying it out.
Have you ever left a random note in a library book? I don't mean that one should scribble in the book, of course. A small sticky note would suffice. You could recommend another book similar to that one. I know that librarians might remove your note, but they might actually leave it between the pages. I've actually done this in hotel rooms. I've left notes in phone books when someplace I ate had a particularly good (or bad) dish or service. It seemed like a good way to pay things forward to the next person staying at the hotel.
Writing is something writers tend to do because it's part of who we are. Once in awhile it's fun to take a chance with who you are and share that with the rest of the world, even if it's in the smallest of ways. Now I'm smiling again, thinking of all those people who might read this and start paging through their hotel room phone books in hopes that someone left them a note.
posted at: 16:26 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
