FLINT & STEEL | WRITING PROMPT | SUMMER FOCUS

In the Good Old Summertime, the Time Is Right to–Focus?

I have some novel ideas about what that might look like

Is it summer already?

The year’s almost half over. So it’s a good time to take stock, make plans and recalibrate. Or, as Ellie says, have a summer focus.

I’d love to have a summer focus.

With the focus or emphasis on that single letter word, a.

Because I’m the kinda gal who regularly asks herself, if I’m spread this thin, how come I’m still fat?

I must like having a lot on my plate — maybe that’s why I’m still fat!

But it’s a metaphorical plate pilled high with writing and other projects. Which I am excited about.

When asked what’s my top priority, I’ll tell you my novel, Man Pregnant! I’m working with an awesome editor who understands my characters better than I do. She’s clear when my MC crosses the line from quirky to sleazy. He needs to stop doing that. He’s the MC after all.

We gotta care if he makes it to full term, hanky-panky notwithstanding.

Thanks to her insights and recent current events, we’re deepening the story and picking up our pace at the same time. So if my summer needs to have a big focus, logic would dictate–this is it.

However, me being me, there’s more going on. Including daily writing and posting here on the platform. I’ve gotten into a nice rhythm, with a few pubs I write for regularly or irregularly, fed by a steady diet of provocative prompts. Like this one.

Daily blogging’s how I process my life as I live it, and even get a few shekels for so doing. While the novel feels more like work, even though it’s a labor of love and I’m smitten, Medium feels like play. And I deserve to play, before or at least after working.

But I can’t sit here and write all day, can I?

The problem isn’t butt to chair the way it might be for some.

I have the opposite challenge.

I need to get my butt out of the chair and move around. I go for a daily walk in the evening when it cools off. But I need to get up and stretch way more often. While I stretch while the tea’s heating, I could ramp that up more. Otherwise, hours go by…

My mentor, Shaunta Grimes is a huge proponent of using small increments of time to get things done. As short as ten or twenty minutes. Perfect for stretch breaks. That’s enough time to turn on Essentrics.com and work out with the queen of Aging Backwards, Miranda Edmond-White.

I also need to declutter. Which feels like a summer-time project. Maybe because when it’s cold out, looking at clutter, especially books, which is what most of mine is, feels cozy.

But when it’s warm or hot, it feels claustrophobic. Like there needs to be more space for air to circulate and cool things off.

Hence, the phenomenon of spring cleaning.

Those ten-twenty-minute modules are perfect for this. Short enough to trick me into starting. Long enough to get an area cleared and see progress. Which ironically makes me want to keep going. Yesterday I set the timer for ten minutes. But when it beeped, I kept going till I could see the top of my desk sparkle.

Seeing one area sparkle encourages me to keep going. And to breathe deeper as the afternoon zephyrs caress my face through the wide-open windows.

TCB with TLC

There’s one more project, with two faces.

I’m helping my mom get her paperwork organized and myself as well.

Actually, my mom always keeps her paperwork organized and up to date. She’s a great role model for me. Now that she’s in assisted living and starting to have some memory slippage, I’m, shall we say, monitoring things.

Making sure we have a complete list of all her medications and proper dosages. Finding out what her Long Term Care policy covers and if we can file a claim for any of the care she gets now. And making sure she doesn’t bounce a check–again.

This involves keeping in touch with her care team, yanking their chains at times. Fortunately, my cousins are nearby and give me reality checks after the staff says, your mom’s doing great!

And she is, for 92. But, great is constantly devolving and my job is to keep up with the changes and have plans in place when needed. Like when the time comes that she needs help taking her meds. Which could be any day now.

My sister and I are blessed she’s where she is and can afford it. With family close by. Which reminds us to take care of our business as well.

I’ve got my papers ready to go. I just need to fill out my will, my advanced health care directive, and power of attorney forms. Then get them notarized and filed where they need to be.

That’s a big focus for me this summer.

Writing about it here is one way to hold my feet to the fire to get ‘er done. Having a friend younger than I in acute care at the hospital is a poignant reminder that we’re all heading in the same direction. Ain’t none of us getting out of this life alive. It behooves us to be prepared.

This is a great project for June. Since my Ninja Writers classes start up in July. And since the attorney’s expecting his copies.

I’ve got some resistance to thinking through all those scenarios of what could happen and deciding how I want to be handled. Creepy, but necessary. After all, this helps friends and family who can’t second guess what I want. So it’s not just for me. It’s for them, too.

Which will help me work through my resistance. I will even have my MC fill his papers out and keep me company. Maybe I can leave him a legacy. There’s a thought!

The legacy I can leave him is getting his book done and off to agents for querying. That’s like giving birth and that pat on the backside to get the air flowing. Now there’s a focus!

Let me wrap this up so I can get on all this! Thanks for witnessing.

Thank you, Ellie Jacobson, for this breezy summery prompt:

Marilyn Flower’s the author of Creative Blogging: Ninja Writers Guide to Character Development and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Follow her Sacred Foolishness and Stay in touch!