After Two Weeks at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

A lot of people brought bottles of wine to dinner the other night. Wow, I thought, everyone’s in a pretty festive mood for a Tuesday. Turns out it was Friday. I’m not sure where those lost days went; that’s the way it goes here at the VCCA. Life is so streamlined that the writing just runs away with you, and the next thing you know half your time is up. One day you walk in the woods and it looks like this:

And the next thing you know, there are about three times as many leaves on the trees, and you think, that was quick.

Here’s what’s working in my streamlined writer’s life:

Laughing at breakfast.

Walking from the residence to my studio alone while dawdling as much as I want. 

Firing up the laptop and the electric kettle.

Sitting in my comfy chair and meditating. (Which for me is kind of like chasing a wood chuck  around the barn and through the pasture.)

The wood chuck insists on no more breathing in and breathing out.

I shuffle through my new system of index cards.

I start writing.

This past week, I’ve been looking at the cards that say, “Tidbit” and “Short Story” and when I find something that gets my attention, I begin a story. I’m on my 4^th story—which is to say I have a very shitty first draft of four stories.

And also…..I’m proofreading….the memoir…..manuscript two…words at….a time.

Ten pages…. at a…. crack twice…..a day. Again.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

FYI a woodchuck is the same as a ground hog. Another name for that cute little critter is “whistle pig.”
As they say, "You can't teach a pig to sing," but I guess whistling is something else entirely.