Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Feb 28, 2007

Thinking Out Loud: The making of a musing

Usually when I sit down to write a musing I have some idea of what I’ll talk about, but I don’t usually end up talking about it in the way that I originally thought I might. This week I have nothing in mind, really, mostly because my mind is a pile of tired mush from the heady realization that, if I were masochistic and creative enough, I could actually set out on a six month road trip in three weeks’ time instead of six.

So I’ll just talk about musings, and ask you a question at the end of it.

As I wander through my days, ideas ping off me like little hailstones. If I remember, I scribble the ideas down. I have a small silver diary and write the ideas in it, one week at a time. That way, I have somewhere to start. I actually wrote down “makings of a musing” about three weeks ago, but other things have suggested themselves instead, which is nice. If I keep my eyes and ears open and a pen and paper kicking around, I don’t suppose I shall run out of topics any time soon, but sometimes the process goes more easily than other times.

So, I start with an idea. It could be something I saw in the news. It could be a place I went, or an opinion I or somebody else voiced, something that I experienced, or, as in the case of Valentine’s Day, a date. Because I’ve had the idea for a week or more, a few possible directions have been brewing quietly on the back-burner. So I usually know where to start. Sometimes I don’t know where to start, but I do know how to finish. But if I don’t, I just sit down and tap a few keys and something springs to mind. The operative word here is “spring”, since the idea I have acts literally as a springboard.

After I start to type, lo and behold, writing comes out. Such magic! But because it’s a musing, which is in part a free-form mind flow, oftentimes what I start writing about isn’t what I end up writing about. For example, a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea that I would be writing about bran. In my diary, I actually wrote down “I’m grateful that I have my health.” Because, while my life is beyond complicated and annoying at the moment, I am healthy. But…still. I started off talking about health insurance forms and ended up writing about bran and fast food. How could that have happened?

(The health insurance form is still haunting me, by the way. I’ve had two callbacks so far, wanting further information.)

What a-muses me in all of this is how the flow of information comes pouring out and takes its own shape. It has a mind of its own, and it reflects in some way how I try to live my life. I am quite a flexible person (on a good day, I can even touch my toes) in that when a stressful situation is presented I go through the usual doldrums and loud bemoaning and then I shrug my shoulders and go with the flow. I haven’t always been able to respond this way, but I’ve gotten sort of used to it by now on the general assumption that going with the flow is something I’m supposed to learn about in this lifetime. I should apparently stop trying to make firm plans or running after the details with a big staple gun to nail them all down.

Only when I don’t go with the flow do I feel utterly miserable. Because it seems that this is my nature and my fate, when I plan things rigidly those plans tend to fall apart.

Notice how I’m talking about going with the flow now–see how the Musing is taking shape (i.e. running off and making free with my original vague theme)?

If you’ve ever encountered The Artist’s Way, the process of a musing is rather similar to that of the Morning Pages, except that the Morning Pages are even more freeform, a mind dump of the purest kind. In my Musings I do at least try to start with an idea–a musing seed, if you will.

What I’m beginning to learn is that the more you let go of rigid expectations, the more stuff comes out, and the more ideas flow. One of my objectives in the Thinking Out Loud column was to a) commit to writing something fairly entertaining once a week, and b) to flex the muscles of my inner writer. It is the same as physical exercise–the more you do, the easier it becomes. Everything flows more naturally, and it’s not as difficult to remember to “show up at the page.”

So now you know how I do a musing. I sit down with an idea, I start writing about the idea, and the mystical pixies of creativity come along on their skateboards, steal the original idea, jiggle it about, put in some twists, and then deposit it back on the page, bran-shaped. And while I’m at it a bunch more ideas filter through my mind, ideas which might potentially be new topics: Why is Gracie so bad-tempered today? Why is her growl so instantly amusing to me? Landmark-snarfing as a competitive sport. Is it dinner time yet?

But there will be times when I am drawing a blank, so I am going to throw it out to you all: what would you like me to a-muse about? If you were musing vicariously through me, what would you muse about?