Journal Writing

In looking over my writing journal it occurs to me I should rename it. I called it daily writing as I intended to write in it daily or at least every day of my workweek. Yet, it is obvious I am not. It’s more of a once a week, or two, writing journal.

Although when I do write in it I write one entry, so could I still call it daily?

Ha, Ha. Apparently the creative juices are not flowing overly free this morning if this is what I have to write about. Although, I sometimes think it’s more important to engage in the activity of writing, being mindful of my grammar and spelling, than in what is being written. Much like a novice dancer practicing the same steps, the same movements, over and over again until the muscle memory is firmly ingrained and the time between thought and action becomes infinitely small, so close to zero, the two seem to occur similutanously, similtanously, simultaneously.

Okay, so I just got completely derailed by a misspelled word. I often do and it isn’t just because I am writing on a word processer, which alerts me—with its bright red lines—that a word has been misspelled, I recognize when I can’t recall the correct spelling of a word and knowing I’ve spelled it incorrectly my train of thought comes to a grinding halt. I can’t proceed until I have clicked the spelling and grammar check, subjecting the entire document to the marvels of modern software and correcting the offending lapse in my intellect, removing the glaring red lines from my manuscript.

Unfortunately, my spelling attempts can be so out of whack spellcheck has no suggestions for me, leaving me with the uncomfortable dilemma of do I get my dictionary out and look it up or do I ignore the erroneously spelled word and write on?

Since it is in my nature to dot the i’s and cross the t's, I was a machine designer in a former career after all, I have a strong urge to figure out the correct spelling before moving on, I stop, retrieve the dictionary, look up the word, smile in recognition and correct the spelling. Once all is fixed and the word document is cleared of all red lines I began the next sentence, my fingers striking the keys in rapid fashion delivering my thoughts and images to the screen in a free flowing burst of creativity, completing my journal entry for the day.