La la la, no ineffable artistic souls here.

[mrissa]

I don't know whether writing is more of a pain in the butt when it's like everything else or when it isn't.

If you know the kitchen needs cleaning, for the most part it doesn't get easier if you put it off. Sure, if you're exhausted to the point of tears, or sick, or something like that, waiting until you're not any of those things to clean the kitchen is a good idea. But one healthy afternoon is much like another, when it comes to kitchen cleaning, and the sooner you get the tomato sauce wiped off the counter, the better.

Writing? No. For more months than I feel willing to admit, I've had a short story thing to do that's been well below kitchen-cleaning on the list of things I'd like to do. Somewhat less fun than scrubbing the toilet. Less interesting than cleaning my toenails. I have sat down with this particular task on at least a half-dozen occasions, probably more, and found nothing but idiocy available.

Today? I am two for two on the sections of this project I've attempted, and with no particular strain on my part.

Yarrrrrg.

People, I do not believe in inspiration. I do not believe in the muse. I do not believe in my ineffable artistic soul. I believe in sitting my butt down and doing it. I would like to believe that I've become smarter and more patient and a better writer in the months I've been not-doing this particular thing, but that may well be wishful thinking, and anyway it just doesn't look that hard at the moment. It doesn't look like something I couldn't have done. The only way I can tell that I couldn't do it before is because I was here, and I watched.

Still, here we are: a significant differential in how easy, how possible, sitting my butt down and doing this is.

Weird.

Well, back to it.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, I think people focus on the "not possible" in non-medical situations, and there are certainly more than enough people who swan around going, "oh, I simply couldn't write today, we're out of fennel," that scoffing at the not-possible is somewhat justified. Somewhat. But sometimes? Really actually not possible.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

I think that there's a certain amount of "letting my subconscious do its thing" before the actual butt-sitting occurs. Sometimes our conscious and subconscious gang up and get that part over with in a hurry, but other times is has to stew.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This particular idea first showed up before S. was born. So while I totally get the "time to stew" thing, sometimes the duration of stewing startles me. (I haven't been working on this revision for longer than he's been alive, though; far, far less than that, in fact.)

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Okay, fair enough. That is a real mess of stewing you have going on. I would expect dumplings with a stew like that.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"People, I do not believe in inspiration. I do not believe in the muse. I do not believe in my ineffable artistic soul. I believe in sitting my butt down and doing it."

Call it what you will; sometimes it comes easier and sometimes it doesn't.

I believe in deadlines.

B

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I, too, am a firm believer in deadlines. They're extremely useful, except when they aren't. And the internally generated ones are useful in a different way than the externally generated ones.

Spending the time on one short story and doing a crappy job of it by day X doesn't turn out to be a universally better use of my time than working on another, non-crappy short story completely by day X.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Think of it this way: you don't have to wait for your muse to strike in order to bake bread, but you do have to wait for your dough to rise. And that process really can't be rushed.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And sometimes takes 12 hours longer than you expected and happens when you'd given up. Yep.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Lussekatter is an all-purpose metaphor for life!

[cissa.livejournal.com]

I'm not a writer, but I've encountered similar things.

Basically, I have to march myself into the studio, by the scruff of my neck if necessary. That being done, my loathing of boredom tends to make me do *something* productive when there. And when I am not feeling Inspired- that's what gets things done.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, well: that's why I've written a novel, part of another novel, and several short stories, some of which have already sold, since I started this particular short story thing that needed doing. Because I do make myself sit down and do something productive.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

The problem with creative endeavors is that they require creating.

Which requires the input of the subconscious.

Which, you know, keeps its own schedule.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

But that's the case for other stuff, too - working out coding problems, for instance, or playing the violin. Sometimes it's that something you've been learning has just clicked; sometimes it's that you've been staring at something for too long and needed a break to be able to find another way through it; sometimes it's just weird. I suspect that writing has a larger share of this sort of thing than programming, but you're right: none of it's a free pass to skip the bum-on-seat part.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Ah, unlike your usual weird writing process, this actually sounds familiar.

It feels to me as if there is a tap in my head, which is sometimes full on, and sometimes trickling reluctantly, and sometimes off, and sometimes stuck off. Distinguishing these states and encouraging the flow, sometimes means not getting the chisel and risking stripping the thing.

When it's full on, I can write in any conditions, like for instance while cooking Christmas dinner and with someone else asleep in the room. Otherwise, it's useful to set up conditions that encourage it, peace and quiet, the right music, lighting a candle, a writing necklace... but if it's stuck off, it's better to wait until it lets go on its own that to force it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, and because this is a revision, would not necessarily doing it in order make more sense to you than it would with a new draft?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

If you know the kitchen needs cleaning, for the most part it doesn't get easier if you put it off.

Oh. Damn. Is this where I've been going wrong? I was kind of relying on entropy, or the friction of passing air-molecules, or something...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You know how some ovens say they are self-cleaning? It's a lie, you still have to press buttons and such to make it happen.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

My old (fitted) oven said it was self-cleaning. Goodness only knows what it meant by it, other than it didn't want you to use abrasive oven cleaners on it. Possibly I was supposed to wish hard and clap for the Oven Fairy, as there wasn't a button and it certainly didn't do anything on its own.

I did my best with elbow grease and a non-abrasive cleaner which was a good degreaser but a bad stuff-shifter, but ultimately solved the problem by moving house.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We solved a kitchen problem by moving once, too. Sometimes it's really the best way.

Or, if you live in the Bay Area, calling retrobabble is also good.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

OK, I really have to ask: how on earth can you live with me, watch how I work, and not believe in inspiration?

I mean, if the implication is that you think I could work hard enough to sustain my top instantaneous creative rate, then that's deeply, deeply scary. (I'm not suggesting that you expect it of me. Just believing it's possible... oof.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

As I said in person, but just for the record here: I have always found it best for everybody's sanity if I treat your writing as a complete black box.

[keilexandra]

Writers--myself included--always go on about inspiration and muses, but really it's just willpower and how you're feeling at the moment. But metaphors, even cliched ones, are fun.