The Unexpected

When we go on vacation, I always have a plan for family pictures. I spend a ridiculous amount of time picking out our clothes, making sure we’re not too matchy-matchy and generally making everyone in my family crazy. We leave for the beach and among the sunscreen and sand buckets is a bag of perfectly thought out clothing and all my camera gear. I get everyone dressed and plead for them to cooperate with promises of candy and ice cream. Anything to make sure everyone gets to the beach without a mysterious stain appearing on their shirt. Chaos ensues even though my bribes now include new video games and trips to Disney World. I get a few shots, telling myself they’ll look better when I get them on the computer, and we head back to the condo. Exhausted. But when I get home and look at all the images on the SD card, I’m surprised. I have an incredible image of my boys. It’s perfect! (to me at least which is all that really matters) Here it is:

But wait, you say. “Where are the cute outfits?”

Exactly. This shot was taken as we were walking to the beach. To play. The boys were ahead of me and I asked them to turn around. They stopped. I clicked. No primping, no fussing about the shirt being itchy, the shorts looking dorky. And it’s my favorite picture.

And this is how it usually works out with my writing. I can clean my desk so everything is neat and in its place. I can make elaborate outlines and think for hours on the perfect name for my main character. But it’s when I just sit and write when things really start to work. When I’m writing just for me.