Sugarcane Flower

At 5 o’clock, I make what many would consider a very strong rum and Coke and I sit down at my desk to decide what to write about.

Once, in a writing group, the topic was “how do you get ready to write?” There were the folks who took long walks and others who wrote in their journals, collecting their thoughts, free-writing – which to me always sounded like running through a field of daisies in a white dress but is a legit writing method and probably what describes my output more than anything else. Like this here. This would qualify as free writing. Others read passages of their favorite authors. Immersed themselves in the mission of writing, as if it were worthy of a preparatory ritual. No, as if a preparatory ritual was necessary.

Anyway, when it came my turn to tell how I get ready to write, I said, “I make a drink.”

The discussion with my literary friends made me question my methods. But not for long. I really like having a rum and Coke and writing my blog. Sometimes, remarkable things come out of these fingers. Other times, not so much. But I always feel cozy and comfortable writing. It’s the rum, you say. Yes. But it’s also greeting the task of writing with a sense of joy – like what trick am I going to play on myself? What random memory will pop up and be meaningful – to me, in this moment? If I relax in this day, what will it tell me?

I’m not going to be asked to give a lecture on writing techniques. No one will give me a fountain pen and a journal for Christmas (though someone might give me a bottle of Flor de Cana). I’m not going to be on the New York Times bestseller list. I just have my little joyful, slightly inebriated, corner of the writing world and it’s pretty nice.

Writing shouldn’t be work. It should be luscious.

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Flor de Cana is a famous Nicaraguan rum. The English translation of Flor de Cana is Sugarcane Flower.