one small corner of the universe

“What could you write about? List 25 persons, places, or things you would like to write about some day. Then, choose one and WRITE!!!! Save the others for another day.”

I have been drafting the following list for over a week. It was supposed to be my post LAST TUESDAY. I would love to tell you there is some other reason why I haven’t written ANYTHING ELSE in the meantime, especially considering this isn’t even so much writing as it is a list of things to write ABOUT, but then I’d be lying. I was mentally incapable of starting something new until I finished my response to this prompt, because I am a single draft writer (see #16), and this “draft”  HAD TO BE COMPLETED before I could move on to other things. Writing experts will tell you that the phrase “single draft writer” is just another way of identifying one’s writing style, but I will tell you it is a sickness. When I tell you I have multiple “drafts” saved, they are actually finished products I am not yet ready to make public; the thought of leaving a piece of writing unfinished and writing something altogether new and different is not in my nature, even if the “draft” in question is just a list. It’s very easy for self-inflicted writer’s block to surface when I am working on something difficult, because even though it would make sense to move on and write something else, something less trying, I can’t do it. I can’t leave something lying around in raw unfinished form.

And so I give you my working list of topics which, thank the glorious heavens, will give me some food for thought as I reconnect with my sadly abandoned writing plan.

1. The drugs I REALLY need (as opposed to the ones my spam email claims I need)
2. Clean-ness envy
3. The Mebane House
4. That unfortunate rum and Diet Coke incident
5. The Great Wal-Mart Experiment
6. My daughter’s potty mouth
7. Making ratatouille
8. Have youmet the Robinsons?
9. The naked seat
10. Incredible underwear
11. All the wrong clothes: middle school
12. All the wrong clothes: adulthood
13. Passionflower’s 1984 white Camry
14. Warning: Under the Influence of Toddler
15. MaMa and the one-year old “draft”
16. The single drafter
17. That woman who was crying through Disney on Ice
18. My irrational airplane fear
19. “Sweet maple sugar, honey, hot buttered rum”
20. Wii exercise together now
21. The Santa dilemma
22. London
23. Mommy paranoia: why did no one warn me?
24. Smell memories
25. Free association/writing practice