Idle Thinking

Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

​I realize the title of this is a bit misleading. I don’t currently live a life where idle time exists. There are always so many things to be done there simply isn’t enough time in the day to do them. But what I do have are activities which do not require a lot of brain power. 

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of canning. Canning is intense because of the physical exertion and the heat. But peeling and cutting 40 lbs. of tomatoes does not require a large portion of my brain, and that gives me time to mull over other things like storylines.

One of the many fun parts of being a writer is the ability to keep yourself continually occupied with all the stories floating about in your head. And mental downtime is the perfect time to develop those ideas.

My current WIP (work in progress) has been nibbling at my consciousness demanding more attention. I have most of the plotting done, but it’s been screaming at me that I’m missing something important, and I think I finally figured it out.

Action. There’s not enough action.

Adventure stories are what I most enjoy reading and, as it turns out, writing. If there’s romance or mystery added in, so much the better. But a storyline that moves is what I really love. And I realize my initial layout didn’t have enough movement by the main characters, and there was a huge chunk of their journey I had as a big white void. Lame. Half way through that 40lbs.s of tomatoes, I realized several major scenes which should be happening during that white void.

So that’s what I’ve been doing during canning. Poking holes at points I can already see as problems and pulling on threads to see where they lead. After canning, and when even the cat has gone to bed, I stay up writing, trying to get the words on the page.

I love idle brain time.