Tuesday, April 07, 2009

New, improved method.

Today, the third day in a row in which I took a poem that had previously had me backed into a corner and wrote it, I realized that I have, in fact, a new method. Here's how it goes:

1. Get out previous drafts, note, freewrites, glyphs.
2. Peruse them.
3. Procrastinate in any number of ways, to wit:
  • go buy the scarf that you foolishly didn't buy yesterday because you were feeling sweaty
  • wash the sheets
  • load the dishwasher
  • start reading a book that you recently bought
  • download the songs you realized last night that you (a) did not have and (b) needed
  • download various free song samplers from Amazon
  • recharge and sync iPods to take account of newly downloaded &c.
  • eat a cookie
  • eat another cookie
  • walk the dog
  • eat lunch
  • inspect the roses and admire the creeping phlox, which is blooming.
4. (optional) take a nap.
5. Re-peruse the materials in 1 above.
6. Check your e-mail, check your blog, check the Huffington Post, check the Fug Girls.
7. Repeat 3, 5, and 6 as necessary.
8. Write the new draft.

In other news, this morning at 6:48 a.m. I let the cat out. At 7:15 a.m., I let her back in, not noticing that she was carrying with her a dead mouse. New method: check cat's mouth in case of vermin transport.

5 comments:

  1. that is basically the way I am going about writing my dreaded paper for classical rhetoric class. it seems to be going well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's my method for just about everything, except I think I forget to actually write/rewrite the damn thing. I'll have to work on that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The long-simmering method. I like it. I think I've been skipping steps 4-12 so no wonder I've got nothing new. This book of yours is going to be done soon--and the bonus? You'll end up with some lovely scarves!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh Lord. You are just too funny. Nice work.

    I am always not buying things and then having to retrace steps to far-off Targets because I am obsessed with the item that got away.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cookies and optional naps and music downloads and dog walks and reviewing and writing and internet time? oohhh, how do I get a sabbatical?

    ReplyDelete

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