Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Out of my mind!

I’m very fortunate. The summer before I graduated from college I sold my first script. Since then all or part of my income has been from writing. In the best of times I have had a life in which I researched something I didn’t know, then converted that knowledge into a form I could share with others, and went on to the next subject. Through it all, I have been able to do what I love best: play with words. I love the process of writing, the sense of discovery as I let my mind chase a topic till it comes out my fingertips as they press keys. The best class I ever had, I think, was typing! I can’t write legibly as quickly as the words form, but I can type them. I’ve tried dictating, but that is such a self-conscious act for one who started as an actor and "announcer" in radio, that I get lost listening to myself. No, I have to put the words on paper, and I must do it in the mind-to-fingertip continuum. I do write with a pen, but only in one of the pocket notebooks or chair-side/bed-side pads I have strategically placed around wherever I am living. Still, those are only notes, not full-blown essays or stories. Truly, when I write, what I write is "out of my mind."