A creative process: lunch with Ea

My friend Yo has an eight-year-old son, Ea. We often meet for lunch, and when I was brainstorming creative processes to write up in answer to Zemach, Broudy and Valvona's concluding activity for chapter 1 of Writing Research Papers, I realised, which I had not before, that I did spend some time on the process of planning a day with Ea.

First, I have to brainstorm ideas on where we might go, what we might do. Obvious things are should we meet at my home, his home or somewhere else? Where? At Paragon? At the Erawan Hotel? Eating usually features on the day's activities: what kind of food? Where? How much? Other things to brainstorm include who to invite and possible special activities. Should we invite Scott to join us, or just keep it to me and Ea's family? Are his brothers available?

To organize, I usually decide first where we will go. That's similar to deciding on a main idea. If we meet at Paragon, that suggests a different outline of activities to meeting at my home on Silom. At Paragon, the organization has to fit in a visit to the toy department, whereas if at home, we can include watching a new DVD together, or playing some online games. I generally lose, but that doesn't seem to worry Ea.

Next, I draft the plan. I call Yo and Ea to tell them the main parts of what I've planned: where and when we will meet.

Reviewing means I consider things like the cost of each part: and how well they fit together. Do we really need to visit the oyster bar in the Paragon supermarket after a large meal at Fuji? How much much raw seafood in one day does even an eager eight-year-old boy need? When we're in the supermarket, is there anything else we need to think about? Some cheeses for home? A nice selection from the soup counter? A visit to the sushi bar is mandatory if we're at Paragon.  Asking for their input about what and where is also part of the review step.

Sometimes I make a major revision because something comes up requiring a change of time or place. For example, I sometimes realise that I'll need to spend more time reviewing student work, so we have to cut a couple of activities, perhaps skip the visit to Kinokuniya bookstore. And I like to leave the plan open to revising from moment to moment. Other times, my current bank balances dictate some revision: I prefer Fuji or a nice hotel, but there are advantages in opting for something like McDonalds. Last week, Ea called to with a review suggestion in the other direction: we had agreed on lunch at Burger King, but he thought Fuji would be better. So, we made that revision and agreed to cut the oyster bar.

Finally, I send an SMS or FB message to Yo and Ea telling them when and where to meet. This publishes my plan. It's public now and can't be taken back. (At least not without a very good reason.) Or is publishing actually meeting up and doing the eating, shopping or whatever, complete with last minute review and revisions?