Investment

I keep an eye on my investments. For example, I enjoy the ideas phase of writing, when I ride a swift current of plot details, character quirks, and insights shattering the conditioned mind. But, I know the seduction of this territory. Each fantastic idea blazing across my mind screen is unembodied, and eventually, unembodied ideas collect dust in the corners.

When I over-invest in daydreaming, I Check In to my version of Hotel California, the inner metaverse. The lyric from that iconic Eagle’s song that speaks to me the most — You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave — reminds me writing isn’t all about surface interaction. Dancing with ideas and the life fight is addictive, but eventually, story craft is the only option on the plate.

I’ve found every idea is attached to an embodiment. Yesterday, two of my characters shared a Breath Trek at a moment of immense fear and dread. A Breath Trek is a dance that begins with a sole tap and develops into arm gestures. But, providing simple sparkle details requires I write from my body, which means going on a mission into the inner metaverse where there is darkness and release.

Release work is a terrible job. Many, many years ago, I was turned away at the Writer’s Border and told coverup stories wasn’t selling. So, I followed directions to a Training Station and learned the art of inner work. I learned to see my body according to a muscle organization grid and gained accurate readouts based on muscle constriction, compression, and disengagement. Each of these categories is a…