A Pile of Words

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." ~Ernest Hemingway

I find myself sitting amidst a pile of words, wanting to string them together as if they were beads on a thread. Can I do that?  Can I randomly choose one after another paying no attention to articles of speech or context?  I believe it would sound something like the Jabberwocky or worse.

It is not my intent to create nonsense or indiscriminate writing.  I have a focus; it's simply slow in coming.

I play in my pile of words as if they were freshly fallen leaves from a tree.  I dig deep, I throw them in the air, I thrash about, I cough up the dust.  When I close my eyes I still see them floating in front of me.  Words, words, words, like Shakespeare exclaimed. Meaning nothing.  Meaning everything.  My lump of clay.  Sitting expectantly.  Waiting for me to do with them what I will.   

All in a Day's Work

Right now at this very moment, I'm in between gigs. Finished Round 1 and am ready to hit Round 2. So what do I do with my very little precious time in between? Write a blog post of course. Actually, I read and answered quite a few emails and am jotting notes to prepare for this evening's class. But I also wanted to get a post in, because it's gonna be awhile. So here ya go!

I've done this before. This sort of manic juggling of a variety of different jobs. The most gigs I ever held down simultaneously was 6 and that was back in 2003. That was a long time ago. But here I am, back up to speed and doing it again. Total gig count as of today: 4. I'm teaching, writing, teaching and editing. How's that for a juggling act?

It feels good to be this busy, but at the same time I'm finding myself yearning for a Red Bull. Well, it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I have miles to go before I sleep, so that seems about right.

Gotta run. Just wanted to once again thank you all for weighing in on how to survive this juggling game.  This activity should calm down for me in a couple of weeks...for a little while anyway. Then me and the D-man are gonna take a short little jaunt somewhere special before all the craziness starts again for both of us.

It's like a clown car, isn't it? You think only one  person is getting out of that car but they just keep coming. Those crazy clowns!  Well, all I can say is that I'm grateful that these gigs keep coming. I'll find a way to balance it all. I always have. I think I thrive on it.

Hope all of you are enjoying your summer. No one should be working this hard in August...enjoy the dog days if you can!