In It to Win It

It's the biggest buzz all over the country: a $1.5 billion payout! And what if there's no winner this time? What would you do if you won?

While I don't generally drop anything into the lottery pool, even I have gotten a ticket (actually, several through an office pool -- more on that in a moment) and spent some idle moments fantasizing about what I'd do if I received some multi-million-dollar cut of the big prize. Who wouldn't?

But such dreams come with downsides. For one thing, I would expect that any large prize would cause problems within the little pool of colleagues -- I think it's about two or three dozen co-workers -- if for no other reason than the fact that many of us live in different states. As a New Jersey resident, do I have a responsibility to pay taxes to New York, where the winning ticket would have been purchased? I'm pretty sure I do, though I don't have any clue what that amount would be. And what would happen to the organization where I work if dozens of people decided they didn't need to work there any longer? Yes, I worry too much.

Needless to say, I haven't ditched my day job and don't expect to anytime soon, but if I were to get a piece of the office pool largess, I know what I wouldn't do: I wouldn't stop writing. If anything, I'd probably write more and might even be asked to write more. It would certainly help my publishing company, though I'd have a lot more expensive bills for folks like lawyers and accountants and probably financial planners.

As writers, we have the potential to win big with every book we complete. Your lottery win might be gaining a top agent or getting a publishing deal. It might be sales numbers that you couldn't imagine a few months ago or newly found celebrity. Personally, I'd be happy with financial security for my family. Again, who wouldn't?

So while I'll be happy if any of my writing and reading friends (or myself) are among the big winners of the billion-dollar lottery, I'm staying focused on creating my own lottery tickets with the books, stories, and articles I write. Good luck, winners!

Let Me Sleep on It

Now here's an idea other writers may find appealing. Struggling to come up with the key idea that moves the story? Sleep on it.

This is not exactly a new idea. And in some ways it should seem obvious. Get some sleep and you'll look at a problem with a clearer perspective.

But it can be difficult, sometimes, to accept such wisdom — especially when a deadline is looming or you know that you've procrastinated enough already to deserve to sleep. (Actually, procrastinating writers probably should not spend another hour in the schnazzy looking nap-pod. They'll never get out.) I'm yawning; it's 10:30. I should probably go to bed now. Or at least let my mind shut down for a while and tackle such difficult tasks as cleaning the litter box or take the garbage out for tomorrow's pick up. ... ok, did the garbage.

I was a little surprised the article, which includes a description of famous dream-inspired discoveries, didn't include Friedrich August Kekulé's dream of a snake that was biting its own tail — which led him to envision the ring-structure of benzene. Of course, that tale could be so oft used already as to seem unnecessary to repeat. But I enjoyed reading about Elias Howe's dream; that was new to me.

Inspiration comes from anywhere and happens all the time. A fresh mind can make the connections between seemingly disparate concepts. This is how innovation works.

Anyway, my point is writing is a supremely cerebral activity, regardless of how important it is to simply keep doing it in order to accomplish anything. And even if you keep writing, as Anne Lamott called them, "Shitty first drafts." So if you're struggling with a character or a scene, you can do a few things: keep writing, sleep on it and see what you come up with later, or write something else and let your subconscious mind work out the problems on its own. It'll tell you the answer eventually. You just need to be ready for it.