If "Character is what (we) are in the dark" (as has been proposed by Dwight Moody and Lord John Whorfin), then it is also what we are when no one is looking and we are completely free to manage our own time.
Are you reading this from the northeastern United States? If so (and my statistics say it's highly likely that you are), you have likely spent some portion of the past 24 hours pinned to your house due to Stormystorm* Nemo.
Are you a writer, either professional or hobbyist? If so (and my statistics say it's highly likely you are, unless you're my mother. Hi there, Mom!), you have therefore had an opportunity spend some time with your craft. How you used that time may be a good indication of where you are in your current project, in your writing process, or even in your progression (career?) as a writer. How did you make use of this bonus time?
Did you write? Though it may be the choice for many people, it may not be as obvious as you might think. There are writers who insist that inspiration has to strike to make writing time productive in the least; pinned to your house, wondering if you were stocked up enough on milk and eggs to last you through the weekend, may not be conducive to inspiration. Other folks are regimented in their writing to the point where it is difficult to make ready quickly enough to use unplanned time productively. If you are able to open the spigot on demand, this could have been a great opportunity for you.
Was this prime editing time for you? Editing is traditionally the third-least favorite activity** for a writer. Are you the kind who sees bonus time as a "sign" to get to this distasteful task? The kind to gird yourself with a grunt of "Well, now I have no excuse not to..." and break out the red pen? Interestingly, I find people are very generous applying energy to editing other people's work, but are reluctant to spend it on their own. Partly, I suppose, this is because the task feels like looking backwards, when we tend to want to put the "finished" work behind us and move on to new work. But it's also that the task is much, much harder for us to do ourselves (Faulkner warned us we must delete what we like most in our writings). So how can we use this time to improve our work?
Technology + time = connection. As long as you had power, did you reach out into the great online poetry community to find kindred writers to commiserate with and support you in your efforts? Post to some poets' Facebook Timelines? Respond to some overdue correspondence tasks? Writing is an isolating experience - it's just you and the words - and sometimes we need a reminder that our poems mean nothing in a drawer on on a thumb drive, and that we need the context of other artists to bring out the best in ourselves (and if you're lucky, to find a good proofreader and an honest mentor).
Research comes more naturally to some of us, especially in a rare bit of unstrcutured time. With the plethora of places and ways to publish available today, I think some poets have gotten a little spoiled (careless?) in their submission practice. It wasn't all that long ago that finding and sibmitting to a new publisher was a week's-long process and a long wait for response - find a journal, order a sample copy by postal mail, wait for it, study it when it arrives, craft and send a submission by postal mail, wait 6 months, repeat. With Submittable and such, there's a tendency to rush a submission in because it's so easy, and feedback is so quick from newer journals. Not surprisingly, this is where my energy drifted (pardon the snow-pun***). I searched my twitter feed for journals new to me, read some online archives , ordered a couple of copies, and prepped a submission.
Of course, for so many of us the greatest luxury in found time is to use it to read. I don't know a poet who doesn't have a stack of journals and books awaiting an opportunity to dig into them. If you're like me, you have a book on your nightstand, one in your briefcase, two on the coffee table, one by the television, and two in your "in case of emergency" overnight bag. And three in the cloud. With this extra time, did you invest in an unknown author? Crack the spine on a new book you've been aching to read? Revisit an old classic? You can file this activity under any of the above, by the way.
So what did you do with this time? Ask yourself this: Was the activity you gravitated to someplace you needed to spend some time? Or was it where you were comfortable working? If it was both, well, God bless. But if it didn't serve your needs as a writer, well.... think about what that's trying to tell you.
While these unexpected pauses are great and let us (if we are disciplined enough!) capitalize with a little bolus of output, they usually ends in a rapid ramp-up in the work we have been freed from by the distraction. As for me, I'm off to shovel.
I hope you enjoy your time this weekend.
* - I'm fed up with Megastorm! Superstorm! Snowmageddon! How about you?
** - just ahead of multiple molar extraction and appearing before the IRS.
*** - I promised myself no more than one in any communication I make today.
