The Benefits of Spacing Out

The other day I was reading a blog by one of my writing teachers.

It was about space.

Quoting one of her own teachers, she said: “See the space everywhere. Train your eyes to look for it. See it between these words that I am now saying to you, in between every letter and every word.”

She talked about how she is so trained to look for objects, that she was shocked to notice all the space – all over the place – once she started to seek it.

I liked those thoughts, so I tucked them away in my brain and pondered them for a few days.

Yesterday I was playing tennis. I suck at the game. I tend to hit the yellow ball into the net. Or I feed it right to the other player. My opponent doesn’t even have to move – she just holds out her racquet and bonks the ball back into my court where I’m running like a madwoman to retrieve it.

Suddenly, I remembered space.

I was playing a doubles match, and I saw space everywhere. Right down the center – in between my two opponents – an open place where neither could reach. In the doubles allies, the wide spaces on the far edges of the court. Oh, and look at that gigantic spot by the baseline when the players run up to the net. Instead of focusing on objects – nets, racquets, and opponents – I began focusing on space.

Duh.

Brilliant strategy.

Maybe I should look to my tennis instructor for a writing lesson.

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On another note, I upgraded to the latest version of Blogger yesterday. There were a few glitches (still are) and my comments weren't working. Thanks to my tech gal my comments are fixed now. Sorry if you couldn't post a one yesterday, but thanks for stopping by my blog.