Breathe

I just read a blog posting about slow reading and slow writing. This is not to infer that the people partaking in these experiments are plodders. It is a movement that suggests that we all need to slow down when it comes to writing, reading and thinking.

What does this mean? In writing I expect it means a return, or a heightened awareness of words, thoughts, and the trajectory of where a piece intends to go. I know I don't have a deadline, save what I've created for myself.

There's a difference between posting on a blog and writing short form or long form pieces. There's a difference between creating characters and allowing them to mature into three dimensionality rather than accepting pasteboard characters inhabiting a setting.

Perhaps sitting down and resting in a scene, exploring the boundaries of my story, asking questions, choosing the apt word, a verb that resonates, produces a story that invites slow reading.

As for reading—how often do I read a book at a pace that allows me to enter into the character's thinking or wander the layers of a story? Of course to do that the writer needs to create a story that includes those layers. I need to slow down enough to ask — how did the writer accomplish these levels of meaning? It's not only what did the writer mean, but let me unfold the how behind the what.

Stop. Breathe. Think. Write. Read what is written aloud. Breathe. Proceed.