This is lonesome George. He's the only one of his species left anywhere in the world.
Are you my friend?
I'm not sure that I've told all my friends that I like them. That I like all their weirdness and quirks and shouty shoutyness. (I had a good think about it on the bus on the way in to work)
Some of them have strange badger tendencies. Some of them are lawyers. Some of them phone you up after a year and suprise you as you're making a coffee. One of them even makes mutants by poking at DNA. Some of them have picked a path and stuck to it, even though it wasn't the easiest thing to do. Some of them go out and help people for their job. Some of them haven't had it easy.
They're all different and all fab. (And they talk to me which I like too) In fact I'd go as far as to say I'm blindingly proud of them all. You know who you are.
(If I don't know you then you can leave me a comment to say why I should be blindingly proud of you too)
Questions:
Can I ask writer types a question? Or folk who work from home/for themselves?
Ok, when you leave work to write full time (or whatever) do you find it difficult to actually sit down and write? like, are you naturally writerly or is it dragged kicking and screaming into being?? are there any naturally lazy writers out there?
Do you schedule writing? how long did the books take to write?
Badger McLean and Beardy McBride (if i can use first names) I'd be particularly interested in hearing from youz ones.
4 comments:
Me, friend? Possibly.
"Blonde guy from flat that Badger used to live in". Far more likely.
Writing? Can it be described as "writing a lot that has a coherent underlying plan and structure"?
If so, then I'd say it's like web-design where you really have to be "in the mood" and, if you're not, then you just can't do it.
I wonder what Russel thinks - being a proper writer-type bloke like he is.
I am lonely just seeing an image of George. Where is he? Can I fly somewhere and give him a hug and some limp lettuce?
If you can manage friendship with lawyers AND badgers, I'm quite sure we'll get along.
You can actually put yourself in a writerly mood. There are ways to trick your brain into doing it - otherwise, you'd never get anything substantial done.
Everyone except Lawrence Block has days where kicking and screaming happens. But they plunk their proverbial and literal asses down to write anyway.
Schedules help tremdously (part of tricking the brain into writing). Books can take anywhere from two weeks to ten years. Depends on the medication you're on.
Laziness is like a flower – if you nurture it you can fritter away whole weeks with nothing productive to show for it. I have become a bit of a gardener.
But I’ve been crafty and left off starting in on book 3 until Jan 2006 – so I HAVE TO GET IT FINISHED in 4 months, or HC won’t love me anymore. I’m hoping that’s going to focus the old noggin. If not, I’m screwed.
Ho hum...
I don't know if I'm lazy because I find it very easy to sit down and write - but whether its writing what I should be writing is a different matter. At any time I;m writing the novel, several short stories, a few ideas for articles, editorials, reviews and so on and so forth. At the moment there are four windows open on Word and I'm hopping back and forth as the mood takes me (and of course flipping back to here as well).
So its easy for me to get the motivation. But whether its easy to actually do what needs to be done - that's when the kicking and the screaming starts.
Everyone takes a very different approach to it. But in the end you have to find a way to get your arse in the seat or else you're never gonna get anything done. And that's what keeps me going; the fear of never being able to finish something (and the fear that someone like, say, Amazing Jane the Agent is gonna kick my arse if I don't finish things).
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