I figured this out the other day. I have a good sense of direction, but that doesn’t mean I never get lost. I just don’t panic. Sometimes I can literally feel North, South, East or West. And that’s no easy feat in hilly and river-filled Pittsburgh where you often have to go south to end up north and west to end up east.
But if I’ve been somewhere once, I rarely take directions again. I just feel my way there. Granted, at some point I have to get where I’m going and sometimes I need the directions or a map. It maybe messy, but it’s the way I do it.ÂÂ
My writing process is similar. I know where I want to end up, but it’s messy getting there. Eventually I have to clamp down on the details, clean things up and get to the end in a suitable amount of time. But, floundering through my novel only bothers me a certain points because I know I’ll get where I’m going, it doesn’t feel like floundering to me. However, I know it looks that way to people who read my work in progress.
Just like the only time my navigation stresses me out is when I’m telling someone else where to go or when Bill is with me. But in the end I make it to the meeting, the shower, the wedding and standing there with all the other guests, I don’t look any different. We’re all there even if we took different routes to get there.
Stopping in to say a quick hello.
I just know the points of the compass too…but that doesn’t keep me from getting lost. I just know that I’m heading North.
I have great spacial abilities. I can just see how big a thing is and whether it will fit or not in a space. I rarely measure. This makes me really good at jigsaw puzzles.
When I was a checker and a grocery store I used to be able to just lift the pumpkins and the watermelons and guess within three ounces how much the thing would weigh. I had summer customers return to my line just to see if they could stump me with their watermelons.