What Writing Really Looks Like
The first time it happened, my husband laughed.
He’d come into our bedroom one Saturday afternoon and found me lying on top of the covers, my hands folded, my eyes closed.
“Feeling okay, Jen?” he’d asked, worried.
I didn’t open my eyes, wasn’t asleep. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied. “I’m just writing.”
He laughed.
“You’re writing.”
“Yep.”
I couldn’t see him, but I imagined the indulgent smile, the raised eyebrows. I sighed, finally sitting up.
“I’m thinking through a scene. Trying to imagine how the action will play out.”
“Oh,” he said, finally understanding.
Writing isn’t just putting words on the page. It’s extracting ideas from your head, organizing them, rearranging them, reworking them. It’s brainstorming and planning and thinking. You can do it on paper, on the computer—why not also in your head?
Brainstorming like this was one of my favourite writing activities to do with my high school students. On a carpeted space in the middle of the school, I’d get the students to lie down, close their eyes and write. They snickered, they giggled. They did it. And they were surprised it worked.
Yes, at some point you have to physically write, but since you have to know what to write first, why not stretch out on the couch, close your eyes and go to work?
Be sure to remind your family you’re writing. 🙂
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