Meet the Parents

I love the expression "too many irons in the fire" though I often think of steam irons and imagine them hovering over the flames as if they are about to steam the fire into submission. The truth is the fire wins most often. So, yeah - I have too many irons in the fire but I frequently mention all my irons so we don't need to dwell. My point in bringing this up is that, in order to survive NaBloPoMo, I have to be realistic. I am taking a class on the personal essay and have writing deadlines for that. I am also still in the Loft mentorship program and have writing deadlines for that. I also have another book project and I have a couple of deadlines for that. Let us not forget that I also write once a week for Aiming Low and have deadlines for that.

So many deadlines. What this means is that, on occasion, I may highlight an Aiming Low post here and give additional background information or insight about the post. Today is one of those days.

I have a post up at Aiming Low today called Robert's Rules of Disorder which is about the first time I took Luisa home to meet my mother.

Last week in my essay class, I shared a short essay and then talked about the process of creating it. I'd never done that before and it was a lot of fun...mostly because it made me feel like there was actually a method to my madness and that I write with intention. Also, it made me feel incredibly smart and who doesn't love that?

So, I thought I would explain the process for writing the Robert's Rules of Disorder post. For me, every post or piece starts with a very simple idea. Sometimes it's an image, a sentence or a simple memory and, sometimes, I start with a single joke even though everyone and their otter says that you should never do that. Then, I build the post around that. I don't know that this is a very literary way of going about things but I'm no Ernest Hemingway. Thankfully.

For the rules post, I remembered taking Luisa home that first time and remembered my sister and I reacting to the fact that she had disagreed with mom. This was an unspoken rule in our family. Of course, this made me think of all of the other rules families have so I started telling the story and realized the rules inherent in everything involving that trip. The final piece was to think more generally about rules and no one thinks of rules without thinking of Robert's Rules. So, then I played on that and the finished post was born.

See - there is a process after all and even a gerbil's brain has some type of logic.

Now, go read the post and give me love in the comments! Also, if there are any topics or ideas (or questions you want me to answer) for NaBloPoMo, please let me know. Help me out!