Saturday, August 2, 2014

Lies They Tell Writers, Part Two: Develop a Routine.


Set aside a time, a place, a situation for writing. Immerse yourself in the appropriate milieu for motivation. It might be a certain style of background music, or maybe it’s silence. Brightly lit, perhaps, or softly illuminated. Have your favorite thesaurus at hand, and align the proper number of freshly sharpened number two pencils. But whatever you do, however you do it, you must—must—create an environment that turns your attention inward and focuses your concentration on your art; an ambience that filters out distractions and informs your mind and body that it’s time to write.
That’s the kind of thing I've heard over and over again about how to write.
It might work for some. Maybe. But why limit your ability, your opportunities, to write to a certain confined situation? Why not write anywhere, anytime?
I have written while all by myself and when surrounded by family. In private and in public. At desks and at kitchen tables. Indoors and outside. In offices and airports and hotel rooms. On a computer. A notepad. A scrap of paper. With and without music and while sitting in front of the TV or listening to the radio. In bed, on the couch, on the porch, at the library, in restaurants, on the bus.
If I’ve spent any time there, chances are I’ve written something there.
Manufactured surroundings and invented schedules might sound like an effective way to free yourself to write. On the other hand, such machinations may prove so confining, so restrictive, they smother the muse. It might work for some. It may even work for you. But, despite what proponents of predictability preach, it ain’t necessarily so.
Instead, write. Just write. Wherever and whenever the opportunity arises.
The words don’t care.


8 comments:

  1. Great posts, Rod. I'm not much of a routine person, myself, and I keep losing the #2 pencils. But I do know I have to plant myself in a chair somewhere and get at it. Road trips are productive, too. I take my alphasmart and clickety-click away. The beauty of the alphasmart is, editing is hard, so I just have to blaze through--which I don't usually do.
    Thanks for the reminder. Well done.

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    1. Thanks, Liz. When it comes to smart, I'm more at the Omega level than Alpha.

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  2. Excellent post, Rod. Excellent reminder, Liz. I'll have to find out if I can sync my alphasmart to my new computer. I must have the software somewhere around here. :-)

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  3. I read this during a three hour layover at the Denver airport. Thanks for the prompt to get to work!

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    1. Thanks, Vonn. I wrote a couple of poems for my chapbook NEWE DREAMS in the Denver airport. I guess it's good that layovers are good for something.

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  4. Couldn't agree more, Rod. Scribbles on bits and snippets color a passage in progress. They can happen anywhere. One of the beauties of writing is I'm never bored. If I've got a pen and anything to write on, I'm in business. There is a lot of material that falls out under the category of lies the tell writers. Most of which lead me back to- Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.

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