Writing Taillights

I often have a pen in hand. I write in journals, legal pads, and post it notes. I even use a paper calendar, because there is something unique about putting words on paper. Here, my brain can go with my stream of consciousness.  I pause, scratch out, rephrase, and don’t have to worry about the auto corrections (incorrections!) of an overly helpful computer. Ideas emerge, along g with a not to do some research. I scribble out a story line with lines connecting various ideas from all over the page. Moving to the yellow legal pad a longer narrative begins; A deeply engrained habit from my days as a note taking therapist.

   I can’t seem to tear myself away from paper. Even after writing a few pages on the computer, I wake up my printer so I can read carefully. When writing Taillights on the Road to Healing, I had an even bigger task of stringing our many adventures of life into a coherent, readable story.  I spread out photographs and slides of all the cars I’ve owned, labeling and organizing them by date, so everything fit on a four-foot-long piece of butcher paper allowing the bigger picture to emerge. Now, all I have to do is tell a coherent story that will keep readers engaged from start to finish.

  But the polishing is done on the computer. This when it is time to become more disciplined. No more scribbling, or jotting notes, this is the time to write a cleaner story, removing extra adverbs and run-on sentences. Cut, cut, cut! Editing continues when I listen to the computer-generated voice read my story back to me. Does the dialogue sound right?  Getting back to paper, I print what works, and install the story or chapter into a large three-ring binder that sits on the edge of my desk. It looks like a giant syllabus. More like an industrial shop manual. Why paper at this point? I can trust it not to get lost in a power failure, and it makes me makes me feel like I have accomplished a piece of the project for the day.  Will the story work? When my wife, my greatest critic and advocate reads it, I’ll find out.