LET ME OUT!
“No, No; I won’t do it.” 
“Come on; just start.”
“NO. The sun is finally shining, the buds are bursting, the birds are singing. I’m going out.”
“But people want to read your stories. You make them smile. Don’t let them down.”
“I have spring fever. I want to go outside without putting on all the layers: the scarf, the gloves, the heavy jacket.”
“Just sit down for a little while. Turn on the computer. Start typing.”
“But that’s what I did all winter when it was too cold to go outside. My brain is calling for a break. Yes: I need a brain break.”
“Write about your vacation.”
“Nobody wants to hear about someone else’s vacation. That is so boring.
“Write about all those weddings you saw on the beach.”
“What a cliche; weddings on the beach. I’m going out right now and enjoying this beautiful weather before Mother Nature changes her mind.”
So I shut the computer, push the chair back under the desk, leave the many messy memos all over the desk as they may be, and get going.
Sunscreen, cell phone and pedometer in place, fearless writer ventures outside ready to embark on a healthy, invigorating power walk. Ah, the freedom from pressure; the joy of moving, the healthy feeling of expanding the cardiac rate.
The mind is free. The mind is so free that it wanders. The mind thinks of a new story. This new story cannot wait to be written. Enough cardio strengthening, enough muscle toning, writer happily skips back home to the writing room and starts typing the newest idea, sashaying and shaping it into a story.
Working the words, foraging for form, taming the tone: This is refreshing, rewarding, renewing. This is what a writer must do.
MorristownMemos 