Writing and Driving

I was in Kuala Lumpur this weekend on an amazingly fun softball trip. During the 5-hour drive home, I decided to do some writing.

No pen or paper. No gadgets. No voice activated recordings. Just me in my thoughts, navigating a tricky plot sequence of my third novel.

Thinking is the part of writing that you can do anywhere, even when you are supposed to be doing something else. I must admit. My mind can often wander into that far off land I’m creating with my Scrivener software, and I often do so to the great detriment of what my present task actually is. Thoughts can be so vivid and distracting, can they not?

From my experience, I have two ways of thinking. Sometimes a thought will just come to me and it becomes an instant action item – I must write it down or I’ll forget it. But today’s writing (by thinking) and driving wasn’t like that at all. The process today emphasized more of a layered approach to writing. What do I mean by layered? Well, from the way I reckon, writing is all about having layers and layers of thoughts which eventually shake themselves through a tightly fitted mind sieve until only the most salient and beneficial elements emerge. Today, I was just throwing some possible ideas in the sieve. When I finally get back to actual writing, I’ll remember the general ideas of what I hashed out at the steering wheel and that will help me formulate my final direction.

Even without a computer, one can have a productive writing day.

By the way, I also had productive driving – quick trip, with no incidents. And a series win in softball. Productive all around.