Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes the best pieces of writing are still from simple tools and strong emotions.

I recently read yet another post from a writer about how in the world you can write while you are traveling or on vacation or something or other that perplexes those who attempt to write.

Ten years ago I was on an overnight flight from one place to another. The places don’t matter; I was stuck in an airplane seat for eight hours. I had my laptop computer, but the seating was too cramped to open the lid and type words.

I had a pencil and one of those $1 composition notebooks.

And I was angry about something.

Simple tools; strong emotions.

I wrote for hours. I filled 20 pages with words. I still pull out that old notebook and look at the words of that trip. They are some of the best writing I have done in the last 20 years. I won’t share what I wrote.

The science fiction writer Ray Bradbury advised writing about things that scared you—things that brought strong emotions. I think Bradbury, maybe it was another famous science fiction writer of the 20th century, would rent a typewriter in a library to write. Yes kids, people used to rent mechanical typewriters.

Simple tools and strong emotions. Write.

Not a writer but a painter or an engineer or a chef?

Same advice.