Forget spring cleaning. I’m doing a pre-Christmas sweep of the house, trying to organize the odds and ends and simplify as much as possible. Tonight that means sorting through old papers, filing some and disposing of others. It’s tedious and I’m looking forward to it being over. But in the meantime, here are the three best parts of the job:
- Being kept company by the cat, who has made a bed out of the cardboard box filled with recyclables
- Rediscovering music I used to listen to, which is a fun blast from the past
- Finding notes on scraps of paper
Regarding that last item, I just found a scrap with notes I appear to have jotted down in 2004. They’re for a writing exercise. They go like this:
Sit in a public place. Watch people’s behavior, appearance, speech. Write down character adjectives that come to mind. Write down specific details that led you to those conclusions.
I couldn’t remember where the exercise came from so I did a quick internet search and, sure enough, it’s paraphrased from Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute. Once upon a time I thought it was worth remembering, and then I forgot about it–and Clark’s great writing tips. Thank goodness for found scraps of paper!
What scribbled treasures do you have scattered around your workspace?
