The writing process is one of the loneliest jobs in the world. You spend hours on end staring at a notebook or computer screen trying the fill the white space, sifting through the tackle box of prose and syntax. This is a dream job for the introverted hermit, but the attention deficient, multitasking, social butterflies beware.
Writing isn’t something you talk about. It’s something you do and what others find out. I’ve lost count of people who claim to love to write but never put a pen to paper long enough to complete a chapter. Writers, even bad ones, can’t wait to write, and will write on anything or on anyone. They live in the compulsive state of now. “I have to get this idea down right away.”
No excuse is sufficient to not get in that last sentence, that last paragraph, that last page. Sleep, appetite, and all concepts of time are lost. Friends are thrown by the wayside, family is left to fend for themselves, and you can only pray that the house doesn’t catch fire. Though selfish, the writer’s demands are small. “Leave me the hell alone and I just might let you read it when I’m done.” A fresh notebook, a bottomless cup of coffee, and quiet are gifts from the gods.
The only thing that can stop the momentum is the tortuous impairment of writer’s block. For weeks, sometimes months, the writer suffers from a type of literary detox, twitching and itching for one word of inspiration, one hit of imagination. As creatures of habit, to not write is to lose the ability to walk. The simple act of standing upright is a privilege, not a right, and to forgo it is never a voluntary choice.
The littlest things can bring sensations back to the dead limbs and begin mobility. A tiny spark of possibility can ignite an inferno of new concepts. This onslaught is similar to being trapped in a game show money vault. Dollar bills are flying and you need to snatch every piece before time runs out.
It doesn’t help when people outside pound against the glass, making demands. “Come hang out with us.” “What’s for dinner?” “You’re still wasting time with that writing thing?”
You could have created the most profound metaphor in the history of the written word and no one will care like you do. Just as no one will love your kids as you do. You are more forgiving of their faults because it’s an extension of yourself. Anything you create is an adaptation of itself and to offend it is to offend its creator. So yes, there will be a lot of times where people will steer clear when you turn into Golem from Lord of the Rings over your latest masterpiece.
But if you are like me, a little nutty, the characters in your stories keep you company. The four walls around you crumble against the magnitude of the world within, that small organ with infinite space and with no true unit of measure. Writing is the only way for brain matter to splatter against paper without dying. But even in this instance, it’s always best to not have people around to witness the blast. Someone might get hurt.
*Reposted from Archive*
I really enjoyed this post, captured my writing experience. My characters are my friends, my wish is to be left alone, and during those particularly consuming sessions things like food are really troublesome. That's when I eat six carrots and a can of tuna. The worst part is opening the can and draining out the brine.
ReplyDeleteWhen family members approach me I spit "fuck off, not now" at them, feel bad for three minutes, then forget those emotions because I'm elsewhere.
Cheers!
PS. I truly enjoy your taste in music. You introduced me to Metric and Phoenix. The way I know that I truly share taste though, is that the songs you chose for your playlist from those bands are the ones I enjoy the most. BlackSheep is pretty good though a close third in top five Metric songs.
ReplyDeleteAlso you might like Blue Blood - by The Foals. Possibly you already know if it as you have Spanish Sahara by The Foals. You might also like Jets To Brazil - You're The One I Want. The Music - Breakin'. The Ramones- Bonzo Goes To Bitburg. Blue October - Calling You , and Blue October - Into The Ocean.
These are just recommendations based on your current listening tastes not because I want you to build me the perfect editing playlist of songs I know and love combined with exciting new songs that are just my style and fresh.
No but really, hopefully you haven't already heard most of those and you'll really like them so I can return the favor of introducing you to some good songs/bands.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendations. I'm always looking for new songs. I have a wide variety of songs I use while writing. This playlist has a few songs I call my "book soundtrack". Glad you like the post. It's good for people to know that they are not alone in their writing.
Some authors become true "characters" in publishing. After releasing their works they become aloof, reclusive and they use to hide in the shadows. Many of them become known only by their literary agents and commercial representatives. One of those cases is certainly the author C.S. Scriblerius, who as a writer very little is known. Perhaps because of the implications of the issue described in the reproduction of a prefaced manuscript of a magician, what appears in the plot of one of his books. Manuscript which some believe is authentic; however, their originals were never presented by the reclusive author, who just did preface and authorize its viral disclosure by the worldwide web.
ReplyDeleteThe incognito and obscure author C.S. Scriblerius thus gets convinced to have found his model on the altar of the great literary art, when develop a style with unprecedented virtual developments, with the use of social networking, real and legendary characters. Thus, his writings are heavily inspired in three British writers and one American.
The first of them, the Anglo-Irish Jonathan Swift (1667 -1745), enigmatic writer of the famous "Gulliver's Travels." A mysterious writer and founder of the Scriblerus Club. The other no less famous English is John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892 - 1973), regarded by many as the greatest fantasy writer of all time, where there is highlights folk research in his books like "The Lord of the Rings." The third of them, the current author J.K. Rowling, author of the series "Harry Potter", an international phenomenon. And finally, the American writer Dan Brown, author of the bestseller "The Da Vinci Code", whose writings are also based on historical research. All these writers are a landmark in publishing, managing to take millions of readers to read their books, and thus open ways and doors for many other authors.
Although he is a writer attuned to the future of modern literature, C.S. Scriblerius backs to the classic literary universe and also becomes a " Scriblerian" virtual character from the past. Apparently the author Scriblerius has his surname inspired or originated in Martinus Scriblerus, name used as a pen name for several famous writers and inmates who formed a literary club called the Scriblerus Club.
The name Martinus Scriblerus seems to be an artificial Latin form. The literal translation of the name Martin means "from Mars." The translation of Scriblerus, from the Latin simulacrum which defines among others terms a writer. Likewise, C.S. Scriberius surely navigate on this same universe and accredits the following as a modern "scriblerian" when the developing of his literary theme and creating of his strange characters leaved from the world of fantasy and legends of juveniles classic tales.
Thus, C.S. Scriblerius develops his mystical from a multifaceted writer and easy language. He strolls in a universe of adventures and magical and unknown regions, walks in search of supernatural events and plunges headlong into the deep gray waters of magic and mystery through his travels.