How I Divert

Like most writers, I find it hard to let go of my Work In Progress and even Works Not in Progress. Nothing seems to work as a diversion, a way to relax.

• How about a movie?

Nope. Half the time I'm rewriting the story, recasting it, (no, no, not Keira Knightly!). Exception: Heat, with De Niro and Pacino. Hard to improve on that, so I study it instead. Still working.

•  Relax with TV?

Same as above. Not even an episode of Homeland can keep me distracted enough not to wonder if I've put enough tension in that last scene of my WIP. 

• Let's go shopping?

Nope. Can't relax. I'm always figuring I could make it—whatever it is. A knit cap? I can do it. A calendar? Logo items? I can do those. Greeting cards? stickers? Photo albums?  Been there, done that. Even if I never actually knit another cap, I *assume* I will. In a way shopping is just another way for me to get ideas.

What if it's a bookstore? OK, of course, I have *fun* but I'm still working. What's on the shelf face out? Why? Those gift books—why don't I write a few?

Not diverting.

• Visiting a Museum?

 Ah, now we're talking. Because I know I'll never be an artist, I don't try to analyze what I'm looking at. I give in to the experience on an emotional level. I also physically relax looking at a painting in the American Wing of the Met, or walking through the Frick or Boston's MFA.

Some of my friends take advantage of the headset tours offered by most museums. If we're going to a special exhibit, one of my relatives studies the artist or the period ahead of time, then avails herself of the headsets and pamphlets, if there's no lecturer handy. She tries to learn everything about each painting. Was it the artist's sister who posed? Did he start out to paint a different background? How interesting that he completed only 30 paintings in his lifetime.

An admirable approach, but not for me. I just walk around (and occasionally sit) and soak it in. Sure, I can tell a Turner from a Matisse, but that's from exposure not concentration. I don't pick up the pamphlets and hardly read the documention on the walls. I'm not there to learn. What a relief!

Want to divert me? Set me down at a museum, preferably one of those between Central Park South and 105th.

 

Comments

[Susan Shea]

I'm wit you on the museums, Camille! And your favorite locale does for me too. But because my series is set in the art/museum world, I have just a little buzz of writerly observation going on when I'm in a museum..just a bit.

[Susan Shea]

"with you..." I sounded like a Brooklynese!

[Camille Minichino]

That would be tough, Susan! On the other hand, great excuse if you need to go for research.

I did set one of the periodic table books in NYC and didn't like the idea of "having" to take pictures during a trip. I hated looking like a tourist!

[rita lakin]

Oh for a chance to do overs. Make believe we're 20 again.

I know 2 people who'd move to NY in a flash.
Guess who?
And this time I'd keep all the first editions I used to collect.
And buy the one Botero I fell in love with. Only a thousand then, worth a million today.

And eat at the automat regularly.
The list goes on and on...

Woulda coulda shoulda
Talk about diversions...

[Susan Shea]

Rita, dear, I have bad news: There is no automat any more. When I was little, one of my New York grandmothers took me to Horn & Hardart on occasion. I still remember those snug little doors behind which were bowls of Jello!

[rita lakin]

Susan

I was refering to going back 20 years literally-- the way things used to be, alas no more.

And my favorite was the beets.

[Camille Minichino]

In July at the NYPL there was an exhibit called LUNCH and they had lunch settings through the ages -- including "real" automats!

Gee, how did we get off on a NYC track -- must have been Susan's "wit."

[Priscilla]

I think there is an automat in a museum...