Mary Panttaja

I sitting in in a Starbucks in downtown Seattle trying to get some work done this morning. I spoke with a man in line about how disorienting it was to find yourself in a familiar place when in the back of your mind you know you flew last night. Of all the Starbucks I’ve been in, this is one. (Hong Kong, London, Colfax, SF, Healdsburg, on and on—-I’m sure you’ve hit more.) He suggested that it was much like MacDonalds world-wide—-MacDs for grownups.

I’m trying to find a pace and pattern (maybe it’s really tactics and practices) that enable me to keep working (writing and researching) while I’m traveling. Since that’s what I’d love to be doing I’d better figure it out—how to work through a modicum of distraction. The last month, with illness, remodeling, and family events (all good; except the illness) I really couldn’t find my way. But if I can get the tactics down, I know I can do better.

A couple of my tricks:

• Write anywhere you are comfortable, but write. I used to find myself with a bit of writer’s block (not usual for me, as normally there is always something I can blah, blah on about). I discovered, to my embarassment, that it was not a block to the writing, it was a block to sitting at my desk. Sometimes I just want to be horizontal. And I can write in that position as it turns out. So I just take the computer with me wherever I have the urge to be (and in whatever position). I write on the sofa sitting up straight; I write on the sofa lounged out flat; I write in bed; I write outside in one of my REI lounge chairs; I ocassionally write in front of the tv—but would usually rather be writing than watching. I would write in the bathtub (the subject of the remodel), but my Mac is not really prepared for the possibilities inherent in that location, so I am reduced to reading.
• Keep writing topics queued up all the time—one will always meet your needs when you come to write. If you can, keep a number of threads open. For me they seem disparate some days—but most of them come back around to weaving into the general thread of the the work.
• Move items to the top of the queue as the last thing you do before going to bed. I always try to have a draft of the next blog on my desktop. Work does happen overnight, and a fresh morning and a primed pump makes getting the material out really efficient.
• Stay open to moving ideas—thoughts percolating. Grab them and put them down—this post is just something I was experiencing—and much of everything I experience comes back to be useful—a writer’s work is handy like that—life IS the topc. My character George likes to write in a coffee shop.

More later—there will be many distractions in Seattle this week: friends, biking, kayaking, music. We’ll see what I manage to get done.