Spontaneous play can come in forms other than writing. Here are two of mine. Heading to my favorite coffee shop is a 1.5 mile walk from home. Walking along, I let my eyes roam freely (spontaneously) at what's passing by. The steepness of a house's roof, the lacy curtains in the second floor windows of another. That bed of hostas that wasn't there last week. Lingering on a tragic event: a college kid with no concept of how to parallel park. Potholes, fallen branches, peeling paint, garbage cans tipped over and raided by raccoon for scraps of food that should have been composted. Does this count? Well, it's spontaneous but is it play? Darn tootin' it is! I'm letting my eyes play at random while my mind creatively interacts with them.
I'm also a rather compulsive people-watcher and eavesdropper, who often are doing things that strike me as admirable or courageous so much so I feel compelled to pay them a complement. The creative part of this is the strategic thinking it requires. Yes, many kinds of play require strategic planning --- football, for example. My favorite is this -- an elderly person using a walker, progressing by inches while others, unencumbered breeze past. Lord, how awful it must be, getting so old you've become an encumbrance. As I pass by, I pause a moment to say, "You know, it's not that you're going to slow, it's that the rest of us are going to fast." Spontaneous playfulness that somehow I'm able to get away with, the kind of complement I'm often receive when a wonderful sentence appears in my head while slogging through the bog of this dang story I'm working on.
Recently I stepped outside my normal genres to try something different, and it was so fun!! From the research to writing the piece, I thoroughly enjoyed it! It makes me want to try other things, just for fun!
Sometimes when stuck with writing I find playing with something other than words helps.
It was in playing with my memoir last summer that I realized I was done ... didn't want to send it out, was fine with not publishing it. Now without the project I worked on for so long, I'm remember how to play with the beginning of things.
Yes! So often we forget that it's okay to play and do things just for ourselves. I know someone wrote a novel and afterward decided, like you did, that they were done with it. They said the goal was to see if they could do it, and they did, so mission accomplished! And, honestly, that can be enough!
I had every intention of publishing when I started, but the idea of inhabiting that world to promote the book wasn't appealing by the time I was done. No regrets about the process, though.
Thank you for this timely reminder. My writing is reflective and contemplative, but in these recent months I am writing out of desperation (to make sense or find peace in these times) more than joy. Keep writing and playing!
Spontaneous play can come in forms other than writing. Here are two of mine. Heading to my favorite coffee shop is a 1.5 mile walk from home. Walking along, I let my eyes roam freely (spontaneously) at what's passing by. The steepness of a house's roof, the lacy curtains in the second floor windows of another. That bed of hostas that wasn't there last week. Lingering on a tragic event: a college kid with no concept of how to parallel park. Potholes, fallen branches, peeling paint, garbage cans tipped over and raided by raccoon for scraps of food that should have been composted. Does this count? Well, it's spontaneous but is it play? Darn tootin' it is! I'm letting my eyes play at random while my mind creatively interacts with them.
I'm also a rather compulsive people-watcher and eavesdropper, who often are doing things that strike me as admirable or courageous so much so I feel compelled to pay them a complement. The creative part of this is the strategic thinking it requires. Yes, many kinds of play require strategic planning --- football, for example. My favorite is this -- an elderly person using a walker, progressing by inches while others, unencumbered breeze past. Lord, how awful it must be, getting so old you've become an encumbrance. As I pass by, I pause a moment to say, "You know, it's not that you're going to slow, it's that the rest of us are going to fast." Spontaneous playfulness that somehow I'm able to get away with, the kind of complement I'm often receive when a wonderful sentence appears in my head while slogging through the bog of this dang story I'm working on.
Spontaneous play can definitely come in many forms!!
Recently I stepped outside my normal genres to try something different, and it was so fun!! From the research to writing the piece, I thoroughly enjoyed it! It makes me want to try other things, just for fun!
Yay!!!
Great post, Jessica! So important to play and not feel pressured to submit everything for publication. Will be keeping this in mind. :)
Thanks for reading! :-)
Sometimes when stuck with writing I find playing with something other than words helps.
It was in playing with my memoir last summer that I realized I was done ... didn't want to send it out, was fine with not publishing it. Now without the project I worked on for so long, I'm remember how to play with the beginning of things.
Yes! So often we forget that it's okay to play and do things just for ourselves. I know someone wrote a novel and afterward decided, like you did, that they were done with it. They said the goal was to see if they could do it, and they did, so mission accomplished! And, honestly, that can be enough!
I had every intention of publishing when I started, but the idea of inhabiting that world to promote the book wasn't appealing by the time I was done. No regrets about the process, though.
Such a good reminder, especially during these days when gravity feels especially...heavy! The elephants were good medicine :)
Yes, I love the elephants!! Makes me want to be one lol!
Thank you for this timely reminder. My writing is reflective and contemplative, but in these recent months I am writing out of desperation (to make sense or find peace in these times) more than joy. Keep writing and playing!
There are so many reasons to write (and none of them wrong!)!