I don’t feel like writing today. So why am I writing and drawing the blood out of the stone that is this week’s blog post? Because I’ve heard that a third of a writer’s life is procrastinating, a third is writing when you don’t feel like writing and a third actually writing. When last week’s post had me firmly in the third category, today has me smack in the middle of the first two.
What to write when you don’t feel like writing? A listicle! Well, to be more nuanced than that, ten questions I would ask if I were playing a game of I Spy. I’ve never played a game of I Spy in my life as I wasn’t often the kind of child that needed to be kept occupied during, say, a car ride, but that could also have had to do with the fact that I enjoyed looking out the window undisturbed the most.
For the purposes of this exercise, our setting will be the usual road trip where you’re trying to keep occupied at a rest stop until you’ve gathered up enough energy to get back on the road. You can be a kid of any age here, even if you’re a “big” kid. You are sitting on a shaded bench next to your road trip companion, with the sun reaching and baking only your ankles, and the cool drink you got has already made a pool of condensation on the table you’re leaning back on. You’re people watching, but instead start scenery watching when you become aware of how much you’re procrastinating the drive.
If you have made it this far, I commend you. I don’t even want to keep going today…
I spy, with my little eye…
- Would it fit on your hand?
- Would an animal eat it willingly?
- Could you run to it and back in less than five minutes?
- Is it a color that is one of the primary colors?
- Would a five-year-old child have a name for it yet?
- Would you find it in another country under a different name?
- Is it likely to still be on the same spot when we make our way back through this rest stop?
- Is it something you could also have in your home?
- Is it something that could be damaged by the elements?
- Is it something that could still be used in a future dystopian society?
From Doodle to Bestseller 