Another week, another fizzle in the writing department.
I could produce a veritable tsunami wave of excuses, but the bottom line is: Didn't write. Thought of writing. Still didn't write. Read a little. Ran around a lot. In tight, little, nonconcentric circles.
I've got to face facts: My life is a bit of a runaway train right now. Not conducive to the meditative, introspective act of fiction writing.
It is humbling for me to see, plainly, how much more structure and organization my life requires, if I want to accomplish what I want to accomplish at work, at love, spiritually, creatively.
But, I vow to rise to the challenge! Hope all others are experiencing more satisfaction and success in their literary endeavors. I think at this point I will be quite happy if and when I can finish reading just one of my many bedside books!
13 comments:
I hear you loud and clear on structure and organization. If I don't insist on my writing time, it won't get done because inevitably life will get in the way.
I have a 'Fess Up Friday post on my blog -- made progress this week on my WIP but turns out I've got a lot of rewriting ahead because I discovered a new subplot. :)
I so know what you mean! & to thomma lyn to--about the sublplots turning up too.
but I have to thank you litkit because if not for 'having' to fess up I prob won't have written at all!
i wanna learn to manage long term projects too!!!!!!!!!
You're not alone, LK! Why can't my life just be a little more organised? I would get so much more done!
But that's life, I suppose. The chaos might even help contribute to your writing one day - never know.
Meanwhile, trying to just breathe and find the quiet spaces between the chaos to do what needs to be done.
Just breathe.
Hey LK, I can identify with the stuckness. And the excuses. Maybe if you carry on writing about why it's hard to write you'll get past the stuckness. A writer I reallt admire (Jonny Steinberg - he writes non-fiction in SA) gives good advice about that. He says he only takes a break when the writing's going better. When it's going badly he keeps plugging away until there's a breakthrough. Sorry if that sounds like more work ;-)
Ditto. I think that says it all.
LK. i'm in year seven of noveling and lots of time is spent actually living. i believe firmly in what i call "walking around" time. for me writing is really more than just words on a page or hours spent at a desk. sometimes months would go by when i was in the thick of life. there is no such thing as wasted time. i find that in that walking around time i found answers that would not have come if there was not space for my ideas to grow. toni morrison said something to the effect that we have blocks for a reason. that there is something that we need to know more about before we proceed. be gentle with yourself and present. the work will be better for it.
I completely hear you on this, and I've found prayerful meditation to help but not solve the problem.
One thing Laraine Herring said has stuck with me - writing is like a relationship. If you don't show up to spend time with it regularly, it doesn't work. If you come back to it after two months (or two weeks) away when you haven't even checked it, it begins to wonder if you care, if it even knows you. That helps me to consider so that I at least check in most days.
I've been making excuses for myself, too busy, going away, etc etc. But I feel the same way; I must get organized and write. I don't know why I am so resistant to scheduling!
What is really stopping you from writing? Afraid it won't be a best seller? Afraid what a reader might think? Not enough time in the day? Okay, the teacher in me is going to come out:
First, let all of that go. Next, you have to write for 30 minutes a day. Describe what you see out the window, or a meal you ate, or a dress you want. Anything! Just get in the habit. This time is set in stone - no one is allowed to say "get me some food" or "take me for a walk" or "use me to vaccuume your dirty house!" Every day you surely can fit in 30 minutes at your desk (or wherever). I go to the coffee shop (without a cell phone) so the kids and the dog don't bug me, and someone waits on me!
You can do it, you just have to decide you want to. That's the bottom line - just decide you want to.
Good luck. I will be looking for next weeks confession! (Obviously you are very busy, but a really good, entertaining, enlightening book to read about writing and how to just do it is Stephen King's "On Writing.")
Reading is a kind of writing, no?
LK, check out the book Pen on Fire, a busy woman's guide to igniting the writer from within. There's a lot of the normal stuff, like exercises but I like the way she talks about getting over writing obstacles.
I know what you mean about trying to get organized. Sometimes I make these long lists of all the writing tasks I'm going to accomplish in one day. That only works sometimes.
Right now I'm fostering two kittens I rescued from a pound. They were going to get euthanized and even though I already have two (territorial) cats I figured I'd take the chance. Hissing and batting ensued.
Well, today I was two days into the experiment when an idea came to me. I opened up a can of salmon soft food and put it on the floor for one of my kittens and one of my big cats. They both ran for the food.
Usually, I kept the cats and kittens separate when they ate. I thought food would bring out the worst jealousies in them.
But they ate together. Peacefully.
I think there's some kind of useful writing analogy in all of this. Because when I associate writing with 'needing' to write like it's some kind of job I'm punching the clock at, it becomes tedious. It feels so far away from the feeling that made me want to start writing in the first place.
Today I taught my territorial cat to associate my little kitten with something pleasurable. Maybe with writing it's the same. If you've been thinking of it for too long as a "should do" maybe it's time to link it to something new in a creative way.
hmm, no posts in quite some time. I'm getting worried about you. I'm leaving for vacation but if you aren't posting when I get back expect an email or five....
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