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Tayari's Blog: You Never Know How You'll Learn

Posted by TayariJones on June 23, 2008 02:35 PM
Filed under Writing

Yesterday, I took a ride out in a canoe. I had seen people operate canoes on TV and I thought I knew what I was doing. I didn’t think myself to be a pro, but I thought I had the basic idea. I sat myself down and I rowed. My arms were killing me and I wasn’t getting anywhere. I think of myself a person in decent shape. I know I have upper body strength, but my canoe wasn’t really moving forward. Everyone else was speeding across the water, laughing, telling jokes. And I was struggling.

Today, I went back out thinking that I just needed to try harder and build up some endurance. Well, after about ten minutes I realized what I was doing wrong. I was sticking the oar in the water and pulling it with my arms. Looking at arms you can see they are teeny weeny muscles. What I should have done was used my arms to place the oar in the water and used my torso to pull. (I don’t know if I am doing a good job of explaining, but I could show you if we ever end up in a canoe together.) The point is that I was using bad form. I was trying as hard as I could, but I just wasn’t doing it right and wasn’t getting anywhere.

Now, let’s switch to my writing situation. I have this bright idea for my novel and I have been trying so hard to make it happen. I was letting my mind guide me. I was also getting myself all dialed up about the fact that I have come here to write and every second I am not writing is a second wasted. I got more focused. I cracked the whip on myself.

It was a bad idea. Just like the canoeing, it was bad form. I was trying to use the part of myself that reasons. I was also motivating myself with pressure and sprinkling in some guilt. I wasn’t tapping into my instincts. I wasn’t listening to myself. And I was getting nowhere. The reason I ended up in the canoe in the first place is that I wasn’t accomplishing anything with my writing and I was getting sort of bummed out about it.

And then, like that, on the water, it came to me.

I know this sounds sort of corny. But that’s exactly how it happened.

June 25, 2008 08:23 PM