Writing Related Meditation

I like to cook. In order to cook a successful meal I have to do lots of other things. By definition (at least according to the OED) cooking is to prepare food by applying heat. Based on that definition I should be able to take a steak, or sausages, or a roast and throw it in the microwave and voila! dinner.

Not so.

To prepare, say, a boiled dinner, a seemingly very uncomplicated meal, takes considerable necessary preparation that actually starts BEFORE I even go to the grocery store. What do I already have? I must check onions, garlic, and potatoes (do I have red potatoes? white? russets? What kind of potato do I want?) to insure I have an ample supply of these household staples. I check to be sure that I have the right mustard – you know like Dijon – spiced mustard. Check the weather. Yes really – is it going to be too warm to keep a pot of boiling water on the stove for several hours? Is it storming? Could I lose power? I can’t cook on an electric stove without electricity. Maybe I should consider a gas stove. This would slow down the cooking process and I’d never get to writing.

Then I have to shop (which in and of itself has many necessary steps…make a list, pack up shopping bags, check bank statement, check gas, get gas as necessary, drive to the store). I have to purchase the necessary ingredients (which are, of course, on my list): smoked shoulder (is it on sale? Would I be better off getting a corned beef?), cabbage, carrots, any of the staples that I might have added to the list (see above). Drive back home, unpack the car, put groceries away.

But, according to the OED, I’m still not to the “cooking” part. I have to rinse the meat (after opening it carefully so that I do not spill the juices all over the kitchen), immediately wash my hands because I am completely grossed out, get the water into the pot and on the stove, add mustard, add meat, wash my hands again. Turn on stove. NOW, technically, I’m cooking – but it isn’t anything close to a meal yet.

I have to begin the process of chopping veggies (which has its own internal clustered list)…Then I have to time the adding of each item to insure that it cooks for the proper amount of time. Three hours later I have cooked dinner.

Why is it that these are acceptable steps to cooking, but when I am writing, the only acceptable activity is the sitting down with pen or pc and writing? My latest blog entry is about purchasing food from fast food restaurants – which means that the act of purchasing the food, in retrospect, becomes part of my writing process. Talking to my coworker, who insisted I add the vignettes up and write the story, becomes part of my writing process. Doing maintenance on my pc, doing the code-work on my blog where the story ended up, networking on facebook, and other places, to get people to actually read my blog (you should all go read my blog. Do it, do it now.), preparing veggies for the parrots so that they will be quiet and give me time and space to write. Then there is writing. But, after that there is revision, posting, rereading, more revision…

Technically, I suppose, you could count the hundreds of generations of snide-smart-ass Irish ancestors as part of my process. After all, they gave me my sharp edge, right? It’s cultural.

For pieces that I want to send out that list of related writing activities increases exponentially. Researching journals, reading the short list of journals that I think any given piece is appropriate for, checking guidelines, polishing the piece, shopping for necessary supplies (paper, ink, envelopes). Then there’s printing, proofing, reprinting, mailing (with its own clustered list). That’s not to mention the tracking process – adding it to the database I keep (it’s pretty short cuz I’m a wuss, but anyway…). Doing follow-up…

The necessary 12 anxiety attacks before I actually submit something. It can be more stressful than giving birth.

Being involved in writers’ groups is an important part of the writing process. Or, more aptly, it’s an important part of MY writing process. Staying connected with creative people. So, even the process of finding such a group becomes part of writing a story about the trials and tribulations of ordering fast food…

Without each of the related processes there is no writing. Sure, I could lock myself in a garret and just write, but what would there be to write about? And if I have locked myself away, who would read what I wrote? The related activities are a necessary part of the writing process. Sometimes, the NOT writing is the most productive part of my process.

Now granted, when I was in school, which I just finished in June, I did a lot of writing. But there was soooo much else. There were, book annotations, midterm evals, required online conferences, teacher evals, SLAs, mailing packets, phone conferences, travel arrangements, residency, residency logs, RSLAs, car and house rentals, traveling… The actual writing time was limited. The difference is deadlines. I had to do all of that AND meet a monthly deadline, and page count and live the rest of my life. So now I am replacing all of the school-writing-stuff with professional-writer-stuff that is just as valid and necessary. I think the trick to success in this new place is to find a way to be accountable. To have hard deadlines. To stop beating myself up for knowing that there is a lot of other stuff to the job of writing – I can’t just throw raw meat in the microwave and expect a feast.