River Brown

L. and L. got talk time on pd and life instead of posting presentations on our blog, because Crema wifi was down.

Two hours of unchoreographed talk with my teacher/writer friend did my mind good.  And so does this March challenge, making it a daily practice in the early evening to sit at my writing desk and produce something.

I was thinking how much I need solitude to write.  Deep quiet.  And at the same time how I need to talk with someone who writes.  Nailed it, Anne Lamott. So I’m grateful for my writing group of two. That thought about need made me pull out my old copy of Ralph Fletcher’s What A Writer Needs.  Here’s Fletcher in Final Thoughts:

Think small.  The best things to write about are often the tiniest things — your brother’s junk drawer, something weird your dog once did…”

And my teensy moment to write today popped into my head.

The late afternoon sun makes our big old front porch Mom’s regular spot to take an old book of crossword puzzles that her mom never finished working — and her martini.  The front door was open and I saw Mom dialing her flip phone to call back a friend in SF.  “Ha ha haaaa.”  A pause and some talk.  Her laugh was strong like the raven in the cedar yesterday.  It lit on the porch and carried into the house.  It scoured out worry from the wainscot and blended with the neighborhood kids’ street game.  Full out ha ha ha ha haaa.

She and her friend John yakked quite a while.  Again and again her laughter carried into the house, making me smile.

And I think, that’s what writers need, too.  In addition to quiet and writing buddy talk — laughter.  L Squared had some good laughs this morning.  Just the let’s not-get-too-dead-serious about all this pd — permission to play and mess around with ideas.