Writing, it can take many forms

I drove to the MWA board meeting/luncheon this past weekend and worked on my sequel to “Stairway to the Bottom” on the way. Of course, if you’re my wife, I wasn’t writing I was driving. To be honest, she is right – kind of.

My wife thinks my ‘writing’ is an excuse to do anything but work around the house. I try to explain to her that while I am under the house – we live in a stilt house in the Florida Keys – maybe smoking a cigar and sipping some Jameson’s and no laptop around, I am writing.

For me, to get as much of a chapter in my mind, worked over and over again, is writing. It makes it a lot easier when I sit down to write the chapter that I have more than a general idea of what I’m going to do. I don’t always have this luxury. When I work on a chapter, it may take two days. I get up in the morning and begin to finish what I started the day before. Some nights I’ll think about where I’m going with the it. There are nights when a great solution pops into my head and when I get up, wham, bam, thank you ma’am, and the chapter almost writes its self. Not enough of those nights.

I find driving does the same thing. I start off heading up US1, CD of Kris or Waylon playing, and I get to run ideas through my head and more often than not, I find solutions to problems in the story, move forward, past the chapters I’m working on and before you know it I’ve got a mental outline of three or four other chapters. I keep a tape recorder – a small one on the passenger seat – and record my thoughts when I think I’ve hit on something. I’ve lost ideas on drives and once lost I’m not able to get the thought back! A small tape recorder eliminates that problem.

I try to explain to my wife that times at Schooner Wharf, Smokin’ Tuna, Hog’s Breath, etc., is writing too because I am looking for unusual traits in people – the way they dress, talk or act.

Reminds me of the time the Gay and Lesbian group came to the island – twice a year the organization has events in Key West – and this one year my friend Bob and I were at the Hog’s Breath and we watched two guys try to pick up two women who had been sitting together when we walked in. No way to tell if they were straight or gay, but in my imagination they were gay and the two guys trying to pick them up became a comedy act. Hell, I should’ve taken better notes and I would’ve had a stand-up routine.

I guess my point is – and my wife doesn’t get it – is that as a writer you have to be aware of your surroundings and use them to up the reality of your story. For me, driving and walking circles under the house is a form of writing. Sitting in a saloon watching the loons, is a form of writing.

You want to do some strange research, come to Key West when the Limeys are here. The sailors get off the ship and go looking for a fight. Well, first they want some booze. You wouldn’t believe the crap tourists pull and I have to be out there catching it all for a book. I call it research. I can’t use the words my wife calls it, but it’s fair to say she thinks I’m goofing off.

What do you think? Not if I’m goofing off or not, but do you write in your head before it gets onto the computer screen? Or do you put ideas down longhand? Where do you do this? In the car? On the morning jog? Let me know.

For more about my Key West series, check out www.michaelhaskins.net.

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