In order to write, you have to sit down and write. Yes: I've uncovered my latest deep thought, and it's a simple one, you'd think. In most cases, anyway: When you call yourself a writer, you sit down and write. You sit down and write when you have a deadline. You sit down and write when it's your job. And when you're occasionally inspired, or driven, or compelled, you sit down and write because you love it. This raises a few questions: How do you write when it's easier not to write? How do you write when you constantly feel like you don't know what you're doing? And, most important, how do you write when you live in the City of Constant Distractions? Not that I've been struggling with these questions....
OK, I've been struggling with these questions. Maybe you can help.
Here's a little quiz. Choose A or B.
1.
a) Go see the Cripple of Inishmaan, the highly-regarded Martin McDonagh play at the Atlantic Theater, for free with my wonderful and generous roommate.
b) Sit down and write.
2.
a) Take the subway to the Whitney to catch Alexander Calder: The Paris Years with a good friend, then read a book at a coffee shop.
b) Sit down and write.
3.
a) Get free tickets to see the Colbert Report, then contemplate actually rearranging my spring semester classes just so I can make the show on a Tuesday night.
b) Sit down and...yes.
4.
a) Attend a Spanish-themed supper club and spend half a day taking the subway around the city for chorizo, manchego, almonds, and the perfect loaf of bread, all of which is part of another great friend's four-day visit, during which we're going to walk and eat our way through the five boroughs.
b) You know it.
If you answered mostly b's, you're exactly like me.
So you see my dilemma. Or, rather, you see that I completely lack the discipline and determination it takes to succeed as a fiction writer in this recessionary dog-eat-dog predatory unpredictable blockbuster-motivated publishing world. I moved to New York for school, yes, but I also moved to New York for New York, and I like to think of my many New York moments as educational moments, enriching ones. Call it an excuse. But, my friends: I'm growing as a person. And I don't know how long I'll be here. I can always write! And I won't always live in Brooklyn!
But I'm turning over a new leaf. As of yesterday (Saturday), which was supposed to be Wednesday, I'm going to write fiction every day. I know, wow, etc etc. It's not like it's an original idea. Christie has said, "You need to establish a routine and stick to it." My mom has said, "Suck it up." (I don't think she said it that way, but still.) Caleb has said, "You have to get your ass in the chair." So that's what I'm doing. They call the Editor-in-Chief the EIC, and I'm heretofore calling myself the AIC. Ass In Chair, every day.*
* I decided that blogging counts. Not that I've been consistent about that either.
6 comments:
Re sitzfleisch, here's one memory from the Ford administration:
I'm in my second year of the BC MFA program. Two friends in my class call one evening while I'm writing a story. They tell me to join them for something amazing, something I really want to do, but I say no, I've got to keep writing, I'm sure they understand.
Um, not really, they said but see you in class.
They became computer programmers and never published anything.
Blogging absolutely counts as writing. I look at my blog posts as rough drafts. (see www.sincemydivorce.com) I think you could combine the As and Bs - you could do the As as a reward for writing and then write about them ... on your blog or weave them into your fiction book.
My problem is that I feel I have to do my writing at my computer which ties me to the office ... sometimes I use pen and paper but it seems so inefficient ....
A writer friend posted a large Post-It Note over her computer on which she had written in bold marker: "Sit Back Down." I like your "Ass In Chair" even better. tho' I'm not sure that it will work any better for me when I feel the need to get up to pet (or pester) the cat, water the plants. check whether the mail has arrived of (in summer) prune something or weed something.
Great writing, Evelyn! I want to follow your blog--and your Brooklyn adventures. I don't know though--given a choice between sitting down to write and going to see the Colbert Report on a free ticket, it's not writing I'd choose!
--Priscilla in Boulder (BMW)
blog: This Lively Earth, http://www.thislivelyearth.com
Yes. You can always write. And you must live to have something to write about. Enjoy New York. Write later.
The answer is so simple: just do both. I know, easier said then done. When ever those questions about spending time writing versus spending time doing other things come up, I try to remember my 9th grade English teacher's suggestion of "write what you know" (which is of course, the same thing everyone's 9th grade English teacher told them). It's all those experiences in life that make for better writing. Better than passing up an opportunity to experience something new to stay home and write, and then end up getting nothing done because you resent missing out on the experience. I love the "Ass in Chair" idea so much I wrote it on a card and put it on the wall above my desk. I agree with Mandy that blogging does count. It keeps the creative ideas and words coming.
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