One match stick at a time...

The nuances of daily activities will sometimes give us a glimpse into some part of our writer's psyche that needs to be evaluated or tapped into.  I was lead to an insight yesterday while picking up mishandled matchsticks.  I had just spilled about 100 matchsticks from it's box onto the counter, then I realized that I had an epiphany.

Because I was in a hurry to get things organized just before a guest were to arrive at my house, I was stuffing the matchsticks in the box where they would have normally lied in neatly stacked rows and piles just flat.  It felt like I was trying to stuff a million matchsticks in this tiny box.  I continued to grab handfuls of matchsticks and as I looked at the jumble of matchsticks poking out of every corner and edge of the box, I thought to myself, "this is exactly how I feel about my writing", specifically, my current project, my memoir.  At that very instant, I had assimilated my writing with the matchsticks and applied the feeling of being overwhelmed in my own writing.  To be exact, I'm extremely overwhelmed with the amount of information and options for this memoir, i.e., what to choose to include, what to leave out, what the universal theme will be, what to highlight, etc.  So as I'm staring down at the chaotic amount of matchsticks, it occurs to me that, just as this little box needs every matchstick to be placed one by one, so does my writing approach.

In order for my writing to flow in an easy, natural and engaging style, I must approach it one by one.  Just one incident at a time, one moment at a time, one glimpse at a time, and one slice of life at a time.  There would be no point for me to continue to feel so overwhelmed about trying to jumble these matchsticks (in this case, my writing) together and hope that it creates a story that flows.  That would be simply foolish!  The matches gave me a bit of an insight of how I need to approach this memoir that I'm currently tackling.  It feels like a demon to me most of the time.  I learned that sometimes you have to go through something 'physical' or experience the 'tangible' aspect of insights in order to gain a vital element to what is or has been missing from your writing.  So if a thought occurs to you in the middle of doing something completely unrelated, think again because there is a reason for the connection.  Everyday life moments will give you a golden nugget for you to examine your writing further.  It's all relevant and sometimes it just takes one match stick at a time.