There is no dream more tantalizing to me than that of being a full time fiction writer. Perhaps I should say no fantasy more tantalizing …
Today I had a day off from work and I planned to dedicate it to my novel and the start of a short story. What a disaster. I managed to complete the page count I’d set for my novel, but only barely. The short story is deferred.
I had Pho for lunch, that made me hungry so I had to stop for a snack, twice. I got an urgent email from work, so had to respond to that. I realized I’d made an earlier change in my novel that impacted the current scene and I spun my mental wheels around that for awhile. The cat threw up on the carpet.
Then there were the blogs I hadn’t read today, the blogs I felt compelled to comment on, the pesky scene problem, checking Facebook, typing a page and a half and then holding down the delete key watching it turn words to whiteness. Then the laptop got too warm and the room I was in grew warm in the afternoon sun, so I had to move.
There were the moments of reading my dialog aloud — it sounds good, no it doesn’t, yes it does.
Perhaps a full time job is good, my pages/hour were reduced by half with all this “free time” to “write”.
LOL, this is so true! This was the first school year that I had more than two hours a day to myself in five years (because of babies) and I got less done than when I had only two hours a day! I was actually thinking recently about reducing my youngest’s pre-school hours in Sept for this very reason, but I have decided if I get my act together I can actually use time instead of wasting it
you pegged it. I think creativity is born out of longing and withdrawal. Having all the time in the world to write doesn’t cause the tension you need.
Good post!
This is awesome, Nathan!
It takes time to learn the ‘at home’ routine, but it comes, in time. Doesn’t mean you can’t goof off from it either, but those devilish little interruptions don’t come at you as often, it seems, when you’re habits are established.
Hello, Cathryn, I found your blog through Jennifer Neri’s page, and I wanted to come over and introduce myself to you.
I read your comments on Jennifer’s post “In the Middle” and I must say, I really like your version of that quote much better. “there is no beginning or ending to a story, just the place where you enter and leave …” with your permission, I’d like to use that sometime, I really think it says things very well about the subject.
If you’ll forgive a plug, I just actually posted a blog today on my own, http://www.amberinglass.blogspot.com about having multiple writing projects at once. If you have a chance, I’d really appreciate your view on the subject.
As for myself, I totally understand what you are saying about having too much time. Somedays, I just sit there and sit there itching to right, but for some reason I can’t find the words to put my thoughts and ideas into writing, and end up accomplishing nothing.
It doesn’t help that there is always something going on that screams for attention. Nagging distractions, I call them, that won’t go away and only seem to vocalize themselves when you are trying to get something done.
Now that I know about your blog, I’ll be around more. I look forward to talking with you more in the future.
-Andrew
@Jennifer – I guess it’s called working better under pressure?
@Nathan – Thanks for twisting my crankiness about my marketing job into a creative force. It made my day.
@Fran – I’ve noticed that most of my interruptions are generated by me, myself and I, so it’s back to forming better habits, as you say.
I keep trying to leave you a comment, Cathryn, but it keeps dissappearing…
It keeps going to spam for some reason… let me try again…
Hello, Cathryn, I found your blog through Jennifer Neri’s page, and I wanted to come over and introduce myself to you.
I read your comments on Jennifer’s post “In the Middle” and I must say, I really like your version of that quote much better. “There is no beginning or ending to a story, just the place where you enter and leave …” with your permission, I’d like to use that sometime, I really think it says things very well about the subject.
If you’ll forgive a plug, I just actually posted a blog today on my own, about having multiple writing projects at once. If you have a chance, I’d really appreciate your view on the subject.
As for myself, I totally understand what you are saying about having too much time. Somedays, I just sit there and sit there itching to right, but for some reason I can’t find the words to put my thoughts and ideas into writing, and end up accomplishing nothing.
It doesn’t help that there is always something going on that screams for attention. Nagging distractions, I call them, that won’t go away and only seem to vocalize themselves when you are trying to get something done.
Now that I know about your blog, I’ll be around more. I look forward to talking with you more in the future.
Hi Andrew,
I enjoyed your comments on Jennifer’s blog. It’s nice to virtually meet you. I’ll check out your blog as well.
Feel free to use my comment, obviously I made it up!
(for some reason your comment got caught in the spam folder, but I think it’s ok now.)
And then it looks like it spammed you anyway. I’m not quite sure what was going on, but sorry about that.
This is so like my writing days. But you know, I have to believe that even when I’m not actually putting words on “paper” I’m still writing. We’re never NOT writing. We’re always gestating; it just takes awhile for the thoughts to be born.
Linda, thanks for an all-encompassing view of writing!
I was listening to a talk last Friday by Cathy Cassidy (she writes teen fiction.) She said she was there to teach daydreaming. There should be daydreaming classes at school, she said. I was thinking, there are. They’re called physics lessons. All day at work I’m overcome by the urge to write, which I squeeze into my lunchbreak and sometimes after work for an hour. But when I take a day off to write I seldom do more than that. I think being at work helps me focus on what’s important. Nathan is right. You need some tension there.
I like the tension idea too, Joseph. I believe staff meetings have replaced physics!