Writing spontaneously is opening a window, letting the words fly in. This implies words are alive . . . autonomous. They can fly. Right now, they are waiting quietly outside your window . . . waiting for the window to open . . . waiting for you to open.
Tat, Tat, Tat
The words become impatient, insistent. They start tap dancing on your window. They tap in Morse code, “Let us in . . . let us in.” Do you open the window? Or are you afraid that if you do, your life will become a chaotic scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds? Or worse yet, your life could become a scene from The Birds with the background music from “Surfin’ Bird” screaming the lyrics, “Bird, bird, bird, the bird is the word.” Or au contraire, “Word, word, word, the word is the bird.”
It’s All Good
Beware the open window! After all, you can’t be sure what’s out there. Of course, if horror is your genre, “It’s all good.” Being open means not censoring the words. Don’t clip their wings. Let the words land on your paper in the order they choose. If you chase them away . . . through prejudice . . . through ignorance, they may never return. In the distance, you will hear their song fading, “Papa-ooma-mow-mow . . . . “
Photo Credit: Photo by Tony Hisgett at Flickr Creative Commons.
Linked with Thought-Provoking Thursday.
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