Actually, I’d find it pretty easy to write about ironing now. I love how I can take a crumpled piece of material and watch the shape of a garment unfold before me, I love the hiss of my steam iron, how it feels heavy in my hand, and how sometimes when I just let my body sway back and forth to the movement of the iron, I imagine all the other men and women who have done this through the years. I love the smell of the rose laundry spray I’ve found, how each different material feels different to iron, and, of course, I really really like the satisfaction of seeing a growing pile of neat pressed clothes.
But I used to hate ironing. So much so, that when I gave my writing class the assignment to create a list of everyday tasks they did around the house and office, I forgot to put ironing on my own list. That’s when I knew I had to write about it.
So can you do something similar?
I would start with the method suggested by writing guru, Natalie Goldberg in her book, Writing Down the Bones. Write about something you take for granted, she says, first of all as if you hate it and then as if you love it.
The one thing I would add to this is to use your senses. What can you smell when you wash up, what do bubbles feel like in your hands or how rough is the scourer against your skin, can you hear the squeak of the cloth against your plate, or the clink of your glasses when you place them to dry? Can you risk putting a bit of washing up liquid on your tongue, or how do you imagine it tasting? What can you see when you really look at what you’re doing? How do your hands move? Does the sight of pans submerged under water remind you of anything? Be as expansive or as whimsical as you want. Maybe they look like chickens hatching, or your grandmother the one time you saw her in the bath.
Now, think how many different ways there are to wash up? How different it is when you do it by hand to when you use a machine? List the occasions you remember in the past when you’ve washed up. Why are they memorable? I can always remember one time when the dishwasher broke down, and my older sister turned us into a washing up machine. We pretended to be robots at the sink, jerking our arms, working and grunting as one. I’d like to write about that one day because it was a time I felt really close to her. There’s something about the symbolism of two children turning into a machine in order to talk, that makes me think now.
Let Your Imagination Flow
But take the task further. How do you use the words – wash up, or iron, or whatever you’ve chosen – in every day language? Make a list of these … she’s all washed up, they’ll iron out their differences. Does this take you to anywhere else in your mind?
Now go back and write down all the different tools involved. What would a martian think if he could see you doing this job? Have fun. In the poem, A Martian Sends A Postcard Home, by Craig Raine, a telephone is a “haunted apparatus” that “snores” when you pick it up. I’ve never been able to look at a telephone the same way since reading this, particularly when he goes on to say how us humans soothe it with sounds when it starts crying (i.e. when it rings).
Above all, let your imagination flow, but keep some paper to hand to jot all these thoughts down. Then underline the ideas and the words that you like. You can even write with alternate lines. I love ironing because …. I hate ironing because …
A real sense of fun and playfulness may emerge from even the most mundane task. Let it, because I’ll make one promise to you. You’ll never look at that particular job in the same way again!
Recommended and Related Books
Real Simple Cleaning, by the Editors of Real Simple Magazine
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Photo by It’sGreg.
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