October 8, 2003

Features

e the other press ©

SU WRYT UG

by Leigh MacKay, OP Contributor

As captain of the United Airlines’ air-
craft headed for Ontario International
Airport in greater Los Angeles, I under-
stood the importance of my responsi-
bilities to the passengers and crew. The
747 cruised along at 350 knots at an
altitude of 30,000 feet over the Palm
Springs desert and I thought to myself,
“I’m stalling.” Oh, I was confident that
I had correctly tucked the flight plan
away in the plane’s computer. I scanned
all the yet
Everything was tweaked sweet.

Looking out the window, I could see
a few clouds here and there in an other-
wise clear sky. The mottled ground
scrolled by at a steady pace. The sun
glinted off the unpainted aluminum
wing as this miracle of aviation’s autopi-
lot guided us towards the Pomona
VORTAC beacon in the coastal basin
of L.A.

“No,” I silently reminded myself,
“It’s not the aircraft that’s stalling. I’m
the one sinking out of control with a
writing assignment.”

“United Airlines one niner niner.
Continue on current heading. Clear
descend to 20,000 feet. Contact
Ontario International approach on
132.65,” said the faceless voice of
someone in a bunker at the Ontario,
California Air Route Traffic Control

Center.

instruments, again.

“Roger. One niner niner’s down to
20. Thanks ATC. Good day,” I replied.

Nothing makes a writer crazier than a
deadline. The mind encounters heavy
turbulence. The excuses and inventions
of other things that “need” doing are
absurd. The mind jumps around like a
crazed monkey jacked up on caffeinat-
ed bananas. That’s not always the case.
Sometimes, too rarely, you luck out and
a piece writes itself. Mostly, however,
youre left to discipline yourself and
bare-knuckle the piece into existence.

I checked in for our next leg.
“Ontario approach. This is United one
niner niner heavy with you.”

“United one niner niner, turn right
on two five four vector and descend to
10,000.”

ee Ad

“One niner niner’s turning right to
two five four and we're dropping down
to ten.”

Writing is a matter of making time
for it. Then you've got to break the
inertia of procrastination to get the
project rolling down the runway. In
Douglas College’s Print Futures pro-

Of course, it helps to have a subject
in mind. A school assignment with a
given topic takes a load off the grey
matter in terms of invention. You can
confidently begin your plan with notes
you can edit into shape. You can start at
the end, beginning, or middle. Just get
ideas on paper or computer screen.

gram, we Somewhat
epdy the Sometimes, too rarely, you sematy Je
process of Flower and
writing. A . Hayes, writ-
How do “ck out and a piece writes ing ic» cycli
writers write? ; cal process.
Academics itself. Mostly, however, You write a
Linda Flower section,
and John you're left to discipline review it,
Hayes stud- learn from it,
ied themeth” yourself and bare-knuckle = "eis
ods we use and move
when we - ; , along to the
write. They the plece into existence. nexteection.

hit the target “Two
in their zero — eight

paper The Dynamics of Composing.”
The “think-it-write-it”. paradigm, the
“pre-write, write, rewrite” concept, and
various stage models of writing are
bunk. Writing has a number of built-in
constraints that will surely fry the brain
unless you reduce the strain.

“Seven five Romeo. You have traffic
at your one o'clock. Shouldn't be a
problem.”

A writer can choose to throw away a
constraint—say to hell with the audi-
ence; forget the purpose; remove your
imagined role in the process. You can
partition the problem. Take baby steps.
Then there’s the reliable old standby; a
flight plan. Let it hang loose. Jot down
main ideas and then flesh them out. Go
back to the beginning and recheck your
goal. Usually you'll find that you've
missed something, discover something
new, or you'll find a way to expand on
an idea.

“United one niner niner. Turn right,
heading zero two five. Descend and
maintain 6,900 feet.”

“United one niner niner. Turning
right to zero two five and descending to
sixty-nine.”

Foxtrot. Turn left to one one zero to
vector around a Piper Archer at your
twelve o'clock.”

How to cope with procrastination? It
can be turned to advantage if you have
any amount of discipline, which is
funny because if you had discipline,
you wouldn't be procrastinating. Do
some writing then go vacuum one
room. Write a little more. Vacuum
another room. And so on. You can wash
dishes, do laundry, or get some dusting
done in the same way. Before you know
it, youve accomplished a couple of
things that needed your time.

“Zero zero November Whiskey.
Contact centre 134 point 85.”

Looking for inspiration when there is
no topic can be an exciting or frantic
place to be. Potential is never higher.
The sky’s the limit. Free associate.
What’s been on your mind lately? Do
you have a burning issue? You can try
your hand at a number of genres. How
about a semi-fictional story based on
your weird aunt Alice? Maybe a sci-fi
story about your brother. That would
be easy ‘cause he’s been in space as long
as youve known him. Humour can be

http://www.otherpress.ca

fun but challenging. Not everyone
laughs at the same things. Still, it’s
enticing to try to make your reader
snort cola out of their nose as they
laugh uncontrollably.

“United Airlines one niner niner.
Intercept the localizer. Altimeter two
niner point nine two. You're cleared to
KONT zero eight left category one.
Contact tower. Good day.”

“United’s one niner niner is turning
for the localizer and cleared to land zero
eight left. Altimeter twenty-nine nine-
ty-two. Thanks.” I scanned the instru-
ments and set the autopilot to read the
runway’s Instrument Landing System.
We were on course for a beautifully
coordinated collision with mother
Earth.

Approach has a lot to do with the
success of your writing. With the right
attitude, you can bring your assignment
in comfortably and confidently. Easing
your mind unbinds your writing abili-
ties. You might benefit from a few
moments of quiet meditation prior to
putting thoughts to paper. Quietly
organize the beginnings of your plan in
your head. Try leaving some non-think-
ing space for inspiration to work its
magic. Try imaging, too. See that per-
son snorting cola.

The five sets of tires made their
screeching contact with the runway. |
flipped up the air brakes on the wings
and pulled the four throttles all the way
back for reverse thrust. I pressed both
feet against the back of my desk to
apply brakes, as I pressed B on my
computers keyboard. The flight was
over and I had stalled long enough on
writing an article for The Other Press.
Time to quit the flight simulator pro-
crastination and work on my plan.

Leigh MacKay is a second-year Print
Futures student at Douglas College.
Before entering the program, he spent
thirty years of his life locked in small
rooms talking on the radio. This gives
some reason for his being “loosely
wrapped.”

 

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