March 2025 SOLC–Day 20
A huge thank you to Two Writing Teachers for all that they do to create an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write, learn, share and grow.
http://www.twowritingteachers.org
I couldn’t wrap my head around creating a blog post draft last night and this morning wasn’t much better. Here’s a list of what I did instead of writing a blog post.
- I spent a lot of time repeatedly cursed the cat as she insisted quite vocally on going outside and coming inside. And going outside and coming inside. “Just ignore her!” I can hear some of you thinking. Well, you don’t know my cat. She’s deceptively cute, but if you do know her, she’s intimidating on a good day and scary on a bad one. When she’s inside and wants out, she starts prowling about and yowling. She’s been known to strike unprovoked. So I let her out. Good riddance! But, when she’s outside and wants in, she perches in the window and scratches horrifically at the glass. SCREEECH!!!! SCREEEEEEECH!!! There’s no winning this battle.
- I saw a new e-mail from Brad Montague in my Inbox. The title caught my eye: “A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Being “Ready”: Revealing Who You Are Even When It is Embarrassing.” So I read that (and it’s well worth the read) and contemplated becoming a paid subscriber. I love his posts, but will I actually find the time to read them all?
https://bradmontague.substack.com/p/a-funny-thing-happened-on-my-way?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1301215&post_id=159268976&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ys61&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email - Then I remembered Brad Montague’s short video story about Space Bear and spent five minutes or so trying to find it again so I could get a little hit of happy. Then I watched it multiple times. You can, too! (You’re welcome.)
https://www.tiktok.com/@bradmontague/video/7368656853242219818 - Next, I remembered that somewhere on line, I’d stumbled upon a group called Big Night Maine yesterday. This group heads out in the spring to help amphibians survive road crossings. I checked out getting certified, joining a local volunteer in their “patch”, and overall, just spent way too much time investigating and looking at the map of nearby sites. I’m very tempted to do this…But heading out around 8 pm!? I need to consider carefully…
- Finally, I wrote a list of all the things I could have been slicing about and wasn’t. (Maybe I will later?) It’s funny how certain things feel like a good idea, but just don’t pull you to write about them in the moment. I mean, why haven’t I written about getting stuck in the car wash this month? Or about my serendipitous sighting of a woodcock yesterday? Or about the repeated notes from one of my students? It’s a mystery!
So, that’s what happened this morning instead of writing a slice. Except, I suddenly realized I could write about it and, more or less, turn it into a slice. Funny how that works!
Nix the comfort zone 
Well…Space Bear WAS an adorable dose of happiness! 🙂 I do agree with you, that sometimes writing about what we think is not story worthy…becomes a story.
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It has worked 😊
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This is a handy format for those days when I have no inspiration!!
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I enjoy the meta-slices, the snake swallowing its tail, if you will. I’m very much at that stage now, too, where slicing about slicing (or not slicing) seems to attract more than some of my other ideas. I like that you managed to write while putting off writing. Seems like a win-win. I’ll check out Brad.
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Thanks for Space Bear, too.
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Your slices are a “little hit of happy” for me! I love that phrase!
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One of the suggestions I give my students when they don’t know what to write about is to write about that. I love your list and if I didn’t have to skedaddle to school, I would read the Brad Montague post.
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You eventually wrapped your head around 5 mini-slices! I didn’t know Space Bear but we did use Brad’s Circles All Around for a whole school book one year!
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“It’s funny how certain things feel like a good idea, but just don’t pull you to write about them in the moment.” This 100%. I have so many ideas written down, but then when I go to write, I just can’t get going with that idea. Even though I feel it really lends itself to a great slice.
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If I get stuck this month… I mean, when I get stuck this month, this is a great format to use.
And now I would love it if you found a way to write about getting stuck in a car wash! When I was a new driver, that’s one fear I had! Thanks for sharing today.
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This is so fun and real! I’m tucking this idea (things I did instead of writing) away in case I need it! I would like to hear about being stuck in the carwash! How long? Was you car engulfed in suds? Did ya have claustrophobic feelings?
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This is a fun format for a post…I often feel like it takes me a while to decide what to slice about. Usually, once I start to write my original idea, I end up thinking of something different and change course. Funny how our brains work! I may have to try this format!
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Darn you! I followed you down the rabbit hole into all the amazingness of Brad Montague and Space Bear…and enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks for shining some joy into today.
Kim
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This was such a fun slice to read and explore! You piqued my curiosity with more than one of your distractions. Thanks for taking us down the rabbit hole with you!
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haha…I love that your slice was about all the things you were doing when you were not slicing!
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