Couching the Golden Thread

Since I started spending my time creating a day job, I haven't touched brush to paper and hardly strung a bead. In other words, I'm missing color. 


I love working with words, but there comes a point where I feel like grabbing a crayon and coloring in the O's. Fortunately, it doesn't take much to bring the color back.


There have been other times in my life when I've been estranged from my art. During those times, I made a point of devoting quiet moments in the morning to a small black sketchbook and some paints, writing a few words and finding the first colors of the day.


A fifteen-minute ritual each morning works wonders. It's not meditation, which works its own wonders. It's just a very private moment--no editing, no censorship, no expectations. It reminds me of couching. 


In embroidery, couching is a technique whereby a thick thread, often gold, is tacked at intervals to a piece of fabric using very fine thread. To my mind, each fifteen minutes in the morning is like one fine tack holding the design thread in place.


If you find yourself going through a time when your art is hard to get to, you might want to devise a little ritual for your own mornings. A regular quarter of an hour noodling on a guitar or pirouetting around the living room before work can uplift your whole day. 


Now the writer's tip of the day: Confused by the publishing industry? No wonder. It's confusing, and undergoing changes that make it more baffling every day. I just discovered the SFWA site--that's the Science Fiction Writers of America, in case you didn't know. They offer an excellent series of articles in their feature Writer Beware . There, you'll find clear explanations and opinions on electronic publishing, vanity presses, unscrupulous agents, and more. Have a look.


And, whatever else you do, keep that thread running, however you can.