Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

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  • A different kind of list

    I’ve never been a huge fan of “to do” lists. They sit there like little accusations, reminding me when I fail to finish (hey, sometimes I fail to start) the tasks I’ve set for myself. Instead I have become a devotee of the “got done” list. I like the “got done” list so much that I now have a calendar devoted to it. It helps me see progress whenever I feel like I haven’t made any. I can review October, for example and see that I wrote 11,000 words on a new project, that I drafted a synopsis for the book I completed last June, that I attended 10 dance classes over the course of the month and managed a daily singing exercise practice. Yes, there were many things on the “to do” side of the equation that didn’t make it onto my calendar. But, hey, that’s what November is for…

  • Ways of seeing

    Years ago, my good friend Liz Engstrom (see her great tips for writers) turned me on to a terrific book about travel journaling, “Writing Away,” by Lavinia Spaulding. That book helped me start adding images to my journals, and while I am not and never will be a great artist, there are a few things, like trees, that I am getting better at. But what is more important, from a writer’s point of view, is that taking the time to draw what I see has improved my observation skills. Also valuable, when I take the time to draw what I’m seeing, the memory of what I’ve seen is more strongly embedded in my brain. I also like the experience of “beginner’s mind” that tackling a new skill provides.

    Many of my journal pages now often have small thumbnails in them, and the pages make me happy in a way that straight text doesn’t.

  • Best bad guy ever

    Cover of first US edition, from Wikipedia

    British author Wilkie Collins turns up on many “best” lists for his fantastic mystery novels of the 19th century. He was among those who pioneered the detective genre. I consider “Woman in White,” published in 1859, to have one of the best villains in fiction. Count Fosco is compelling and complicated, the opposite of a flat character. The novel has a wonderful, deft hand at multiple points of view. “Woman in White” is considered Collins’ best work, but “The Moonstone,” is also fine.