Practice: A New Scale

Back in the Days of Yore (pre-lockdowns—actually, more than a decade ago, wow, what even is time) I’d periodically get four-hour coffees with a specific writer-friend who is also a musician.

 

One of the questions we’d mull over is “What is the writer equivalent of scales?” Another was its related idea, “What is a practice session for writers?”

 

Obviously, the questions don’t have a 1:1 answer. Musicians perform, and although writers can perform also, it’s rarer. Perhaps. For me, anyway. As a writer of things on paper (vs. writing works for performance), I don’t focus on a performance element of my work, though I’ve grown to enjoy the more performative opportunities for readings and conversations.

An accident, but I like it!

 

But! Back to a scale—a form that musicians can practice to gain muscle memory and general mastery.

 

For me, the equivalent is a daily writing practice. My practice varies, in terms of form, result, and effectiveness (and even goals, depending on life at that moment), but one thing remains: it’s a thing I do every day because if all else fails, I’ve done SOME writing that day. I’ve reminded myself of the power of self-expression, of pen on paper. I’ve shown myself that I know what’s important to me. I inhabit myself again.

 

And now I have a new practice: I’m limiting my time and effort in online spaces; specifically, social media. Speaking of performative, this isn’t that—I’m not condemning anything or judging anyone else’s time online or what they do with social media apps, their platform, their way of being public in the world. I’m not advocating for any particular philosophy. I just know that how I live in the world needs to change a bit.

 

I’ll still post here regularly. I’m not leaving social media platforms; in fact, although I tried deleting apps from my phone, I found it tough to disconnect, so I’d log in from my laptop. So I set time limits (and dropped them lately). Knowing I CAN look helps me recognize that I don’t NEED to. And the difficulty I had disconnecting kind of shocked me. So I’m happier about exercising the discipline required (a dismaying amount) to do it.

 

I need and want to spend more time with people and places in activities here—at home, in real life communities. And also, because life is like this, I live in a rural area and GREATLY value (rely on) the ability to meet others remotely, both formally and informally. That also won’t change.

 

So far, I’ve found I make more deliberate choices—I can’t influence everything, but I seek to influence where and what I can—and react less often. I’ve certainly been happier and felt more myself.

 

And because those are often some of the best results of the pen/paper element of my daily practice (see above), perhaps refocusing in this way may well be part of my writing practice. A new scale.