Write what you know

I just read that on a website about how everyone has a book in them. So, I started thinking about what I know. Nursing has to be the top of the list ... working full time 32+ years as a nurse in varied settings and locales has been my major focus. But, the list of interests and skills I have attained outside of nursing is equally important to me and those have changed over the years.

One thing that has remained constant over most of my adult life is my love of home cooking. Experimenting in the kitchen with whatever ingredients are local, fresh & in season or just something that I read about will set me off on a cooking frenzy. Of course, living in New England tends to center my choices around the seasons. I sometimes yearn to be in the San Diego area, where I lived for a few years in the '80s, with the best veggies and fruits: multiple growing seasons; truly a fresh ingredient treasure trove of a location. But, I am a New Englander by heart, so here I am to stay. I do love to travel but I just can't imagine living too far from the ocean and all that I know and love that is here.

I started thinking about my love of cooking and how nursing and cooking are similar ... in nursing you have the basic principles and as long as you abide by those, you can be creative in your approach, much the same way I proceed in building a dish from something I read or just a craving. Over the years, at various times, while sharing kitchen space with others, I noticed my way of cooking/creating to be different than others. I am a "recipe is a guide" kind of gal compared to many who measure, read every word in a recipe and follow to the letter. I tend to substitute based on what I have on hand, what I like or what I have learned from previous concoctions. I'm not afraid to fail, I learn from those attempts that don't work out and I have a willing taster living with me so that makes it easier. I will try to re-create great dishes I have had at restaurants after asking for hints or actual recipes from the chef. I have found at least half the time, they will be happy to give some tips. There is a wonderful restaurant we frequent in the city that is very glad to explain their techniques and although I don't walk away with every recipe, I get enough information to make my own version.

So, what else do I know?
A pretty good understanding of tai chi, although I have a long way to go before I can call myself a seasoned practitioner (that takes practice, lol!); passable French and Spanish (can understand a lot more than speak & I have an affinity for language); pretty good at calligraphy (again, when I practice!); stamina for bicycling 40+ miles at a whack; beginning knowledge of percussion (through observation, just started studying djembe and living w/a conga player); pretty good understanding of many cultures having traveled and read extensively because I am interested in people of all different types - NOW, that being said, I understand that I do not know what it's like to live inside a person, but my years of interviewing and caring for people of various backgrounds has had its advantages in this area; gardening is also a passion, nowhere near an expert, but learning and growing with each season; a passable knowledge of home repair, thanks to my home repair expert partner; I am a decent amateur photographer; I have become adept at thinking green with a compost box and a freezer full of scraps that I make into stocks and stews and I think I have pretty good business sense having run a small business for years (I stepped back to middle management, I like that better).

So, the question remains, how do I put what I know to use in writing a book? Do I even want to write a book? Does my voice lend itself to commerce? Questions to ponder as I wait for the apple cake to cool ...

ARRGGHHH ... has it been THAT long?

So, 15 months ago I started what I thought would be at the very least a weekly journal ... and here I am finally back, embarrassed. Oh well, no time like the present, eh?

LOTS of changes personally in that time period ... that's my excuse. Now, laid up w/a severely sprained ankle sustained on Sunday night of the Memorial Day weekend holiday, I have no excuse for not getting back to it.

So, the potential novel ... when I wrote a technical manuscript it helped to write an outline of what we wanted to include so maybe that would be helpful in crafting the novel. But I get blocked every time I even attempt to do that. So, screw that ... I'm going back to my original premise here, write a journal and get in the habit so maybe, just maybe, I will get the inspiration.

It occurs to me that writing always seemed a self indulgent exercise, maybe that's why it's tough for me. I tend to be a caretaker of others, rather than introspective or self indulgent. And I am very critical of my own words, constantly re-writing to get the "correct" wording or perspective. I want to be like those who seem to have the gift of literary gab naturally but I am too editorial of myself. Hmm, how to break that cycle? Ok, so I just went back and re-wrote the last passage twice ... maybe this is what I should be doing, re-writing as I go along OR should I just let it spew out and edit later? See, this is it, the fear of leaving drivel on the page, that cripples my creativity. Maybe I have NO creativity ... maybe that's the issue. I know I have certainly thought that of myself for quite some time. But, G doesn't think so and he tries to make me stretch my boundaries in that whenever the opportunity arises.

Ok, now I know one thing is true ... I cannot go back and re-read, I just have to keep it flowing. Because when I do go back, I see just a mish mash and it's not pretty but that is not important. I need to test my depth of concentration and creativity.

So, I am reading this novel now that tests the limits of imagination ... a town in 21st century West Virginia is basically severed from its roots and transplanted (by some unknown force/entity) into 17th century Germany during the 30 years war. It's fascinating and filled with conflicting characters that forge a society unlike, but also like, something many in this day and age would understand. After all, we all know people who seem transported from another time and place here, don't we? One of the things I like so much about this series (the book I am reading is the second in the series of a few, not sure how many) is that I need a dictionary to look up all the words I don't know and I know a lot of words. It's filled with adjectives like obstreperous and doughty, I love it! Just for the record, I use obstreperous myself, but doughty and not a few others were new to me. I guess I should have kept track, and I will as I go on, but I have learned quite a few new terms. The author(s) use the words well ... it occurs to me that I must check to see if there is a pattern, as I suspect, because that's what I notice, being a synesthete.

Synesthesia originates from ancient Greek ... literally, it means together and sensation and refers to people who associate color or spatial characteristics to letters and/or numbers (This explanation is from wikipedia: "In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be "farther away" than 1990), or may have a [three-dimensional] view of a year as a map [clockwise or counterclockwise].). Mine tends to be number related, but I also notice that I have a tendency to relate patterns to words both written and spoken, hence, I remember pretty much everything someone tells me in conversation, spelling is excellent and I have a good memory of the written word. My vbf and I figured out a couple years ago that we share the number form of synesthesia ... we found it pretty funny that after 45 years of friendship we just realized that b/c we thought we knew pretty much "everything" about each other! You know, the person you can never fool or be estranged from for very long, for that matter b/c she knows TOO much?! LOL!!!

Enough of a start for today ... lots to do before the appt I have today to check the progress of my ankle sprain. Later ....