Buying Time

During the course of developing an idea for a story, both novel and short, I am always challenged by the time element. How much of it to devote to any one story is the problem.

Writing incurs deficits, whether they be in one’s personal life, one’s private life, or even in one’s public and professional lives. Most often, when I “borrow” from one to extend my stay with another, the deficits begin to add up.

I call that buying time, since borrowing implies a returning factor, which is not possible where time deficiencies are concerned. Obviously, since time flows only in one direction, once spent, it cannot be recovered.

For some writers—and others of similar ilk—this is where the “woo-woo” factor comes into play. Spiritual beings (like myself) know that meditation produces the effect of stretching time or even suspending it. An extremely valuable action.

And that is what buying time is all about.

Some of my best ideas have come out of meditation. It’s true: when you shut off the conscious mind in meditation, your Muse becomes “vocal,” and ideas begin appearing on your inner screen.

Whether as images or words, it makes no matter. The stuff you need to continue your Muse-directed stream of thought/writing is there for the taking.

From that point, when you emerge from your meditative state, all it takes is, as I like to say, to “open a vein and write.”

Frank