Writing Senses

From Kate's Writing Crate…

         I sit at my desk to write every day. Technically, all I need is my computer and inspiration; however, inspiration isn't always around so also on my desk are:

·       Binoculars;

   

·       Diminutive animal figurines;

   

·       A round, yellow glass disk stamped with "Be true to yourself—do what you love" given to me by a college roommate;

   

·       A Lip Smacker;

   

·       Two small aqua ceramic vases: the tall one filled with pens and pencils, the shorter with dark blue glass pebbles;

   

·       TV remote; and

   

·       Wintergreen mints.

When I find myself not writing, I pick up one of the figurines and gently rub the turtle's shell or look at the face of the owl, or I run my fingers through the glass pebbles in the vase, or flip the glass disk while I ruminate. Sometimes I use the Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker. Inspiration often appears as I distract myself with tactile experiences.

Then I see a flash of color outside the window and I grab for the binoculars to watch the cardinals, chickadees, woodpeckers, sparrows, finches, and other birds fly in for the black oiled sunflower seeds in the feeder outside my office window. More exciting is when the hummingbird is darting among the orange blossom-filled Trumpet Vine wrapped around the nearby 40-foot evergreen tree. Sometimes he sits on a branch for five or six seconds so I get a good look before he is gone again.

I turn the TV on for music or news. It doesn't matter which as while I am writing I no longer hear it. But before I am writing, it, too, can provide inspiration.

Once I'm writing, I may as well be in a dark, windowless basement. All my senses are attuned to my thoughts—capturing them, describing them through my senses—but having no sense of where I am until I take a break and pop a mint while looking out the window again.

Writing seems like a simple act requiring only my computer and imagination, but all my senses are involved when I sit at my desk to write.