Sunday, January 10, 2010
On being in the mood to write
This last year - and this one so far -- have been tempestous and very broken up. A roller-coaster of sadness, alt and chaos. I have always in the past managed to write -- at least to some extent -- through 'disturbances'. But selling up leaving what was once my beloved country and mum's death, and the confusion and uncertainty of settling in our new one (which so far - with the exception of my experiences with Telstra and Bigpond who should be providing the internet access I STILL don't have, has been a happy one) has really hurt my volume. As a professional you simly can't afford just to write when you're in the mood to do so. I have various tricks I normally use to try and channel mine (because yes, I am moody) Music, routine, and reading an earlier chapter help me. And if I am bleak or angry channeling that into parts of what I write - even if it means writing that segment out of sequence. Good news always stimulates me -- so sometimes I'll go and re-look at something positive (I hear SORCERESS OF KARRES got onto a bestseller list somewhere for eg, That had me burning to write and focussed on doing so) So what works for other people? I am not sure when I'll next have internet access so I may not be able to reply to this fo a week or so(this does not help my mood!).
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8 comments:
I have a million ways to delay.
To really write, I have to stay off the internet. And no computer games either. That can eat up nearly as much time.
I can reread, to get back the voice of a character, but it's easy to read more and more and not start writing. I have to watch my diet. If I go low carb it really helps the brain perk up, but that's a long term solution, not something that will help in the next few hours.
And just to be contrary, the most and fastest writing I've done was on-line with cheering fans and almost-collaborators calling suggestions from the side lines. That was quite fun, and I think Toni was even a bit tempted by the results. Obviously this isn't going to work for you until your internet is working. If then. IIRC, you mentioned you and Eric firing things back and forth. If something of that nature would help, you've got a dozen people here who'd volunteer, myself included.
I learned over the two week mandatory shutdown my company does for the holidays that I absolutely must have peace and quiet to write. When I was home with the family it was just generally noisey. TV, kitchen activities, and myriad other things made it so that I couldn't write at all. Then, on New Years day, the folks left to go get a brand new Chocolate Lab puppy (five weeks old and cuter than I could have imagine). The little bro was downtown, and I was holding down the fort. I promptly shut everything off and managed to bang out almost 900 words in an hour and a half. Then, of course, puppy showed up and I had exactly two days worth of time to play with her before flying back to the east coast.
Video games do burn through a lot of time, but I find that deconstructing the story of a game helps me develop my own stories.
Hope things get sorted out soon for you, Dave.
Are you in Tassie now, in Hobart?
Bolt-cutter resistant locks and chains. Cruel, but effective.
Best of luck, Dave.
Welcome to Australia, Dave.
Unfortunately your problems with Telstra are probably just beginning. There are many, many, many pages of people's horror stories about Telstra on the internet.
I was myself reduced to tears in the middle of a shopping centre. I've been feuding with them for more than a year.
Wishing you luck with both your writing and interenet connection.
Laine
Telstra Bigpond and providing new services are notorious. I set up a connection last time I moved away from Melbourne in advance, only to be told when I got there that they couldn't actually arrange for the set up of internet access until AFTER the phone line was in, which they could not do until I confirmed that I was living there. A completely different story to what I was told when I arranged it weeks before. They then lost that arrangement and it was a month before I got internet access. Just lucky that I had some access at work, and a good net cafe nearby - even if it was over the other side of a rather sprawled out country city/town.
Unfortunately, as I was then, if you are rural, you have little or no other options. I considered satellite, which was available, but the speed wasn't comparable.
Hope it works out soon!
@Rowena? Take a look at http://flindersfreer.blogspot.com/ but I think the answer is yes. In, and finding their way around...
I have been on a roller coaster of my own and not much writing happening.
When you get a chance, would you contact me? Please? (It's one of those "for something that may be of interest to you.")
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