Writing from the Inside or the Outside

Working from the core or the periphery

photo by author — my spare room

A sort of New Year’s post here. But resolutions are strange things; I come at them sideways, when I do. I’ve learned. At the moment I’m in the middle of household moving. It makes “resolutions” seem meaningless. At hand is what counts.

Not so long ago I wrote a post about housework, those necessary tasks that can get in the way of writing. But these last few days of helping others move their homes — one into my home, and one out — has been revelatory. Or at least provided some bit of insight (?) over how we approach our work.

It may be something to consider if you do do the resolution thing:

Might you approach this year inside out or outside in?

I spent the day yesterday cleaning an apartment. You might guess, from my housework post, that I generally start with What MUST Be Done. The stuff that if you don’t do it, Something (imagined?) will happen. Or not happen. The stuff I think is important; there’s a bit if a default button to this. When we have a default, it can be useful to take another look at it. Here we go…

I started cleaning with the bathroom. Probably my least favourite thing to clean, but also the most rewarding in many ways. Most definitely a Must.