Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Tidbit Tuesday: Packing

Short one today - and this is for Ray - happy Tuesday Ray!

For me, packing and writing have a lot in common.  First, there is the "pre-write".  This is the mental organization where you go through everything you want and everything you need to take in your mind and sometimes even on paper.

Then there comes the rough draft or as my Uni. Puget Sound writing prof. said: "vomit on a page."  For me this stage involves dumping everything on the bed or in suitcase.

That is all the easy part.  Then come the revisions.  This stage involves multiple drafts.  You edit your work - prioritizing, discarding, re-packing,  weighing, re-packing, discarding some more, re-packing, and then repacking again as last minute items find their way into the mix.

Finally, at some point ridiculously near the deadline (or in this case - travel date), you decide to be finished.  It isn't that you are finished - that the work has met some abstract standard you hold for yourself - rather, it is that you choose to be done because there is no time for anything more.  So you zip everything up, weigh it one last time put on the packing straps and labels and breathe a sigh of relief.

Happy Travels!

1 comment:

  1. Right on. My feelings exactly. The professor's comment about the rough draft is very interesting.

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