Process check-#1
I’ve just now posted my second post here in Medium. I’ve had a Medium account for a while but more for reading other people.
Last November I kind of did NaNoWriMo but informally. The goal is to write 50, 000 words in a month. You don’t go back and edit. You just write. It comes to about 1667 words a day. I can do that in a bit over an hour. I got to about 47, 000 words. Lots to do with the accident but also to do with travels. I’ve gone back in to look at it and there are more pieces for me to pull out. I was pleased I was able to get as much done as I did and that I could catch up on the word count if I’d missed a day or two. Writerly advice is that it’s only at your fourth draft that it actually starts to sound good: referencing a piece by Anne Lamott that was shared with us in a Skills for Scholastic Writing class at USF. So I know I have so much to work on.
Writing about the accident now with it being posted publicly is a strange process. I have such clear images of what went on but there are also so many moments I’ll never know about but other people know about me. I’ve never seen a picture of me when I came into the hospital. I’ve seen the CT scan with all the broken pieces but I could half distance myself from that. I don’t want to see a photo of me in my hospital bed. There’s an element of floating above all this as I write now. When I was doing the writing in November it definitely affected me emotionally and I had to move on at times. It’s been twelve years but for the last seven years I’ve been studying and writing for that. Culminating in my dissertation.
I’m now in an enviable position of having lots of time to write and read and prepare for circus tricks. I have been able to do handstands again, to answer the question I posed to the OMFS doctor (in The Accident #2). All through lock-down and beyond I’ve been keeping active and at home. Last week I went to the Women’s Circus in person to start an aerials class. This weekend we’re back in lock-down in Victoria so it was cancelled. Last week I had a go hanging and doing some moves close to the floor. Most people have been away at least this last year. At home exercise can only prepare you so much. We’re all hoping this five day lock-down really is five days so I’ll be back in the air this weekend.
