Distracted from the Work
In one of the comments from yesterday's post, lyster (good friend of the blog and fellow Substrater Max Gladstone) noted things that have been distracting him from writing and included this sentence:
This wasn't a problem until recently, when I got a day job, because I could get all my Work done during the day and only rarely had small-w work (the paying, non-writing kind) to compete with it for time.
There are definitely days when I forget to think of the Work -- the writing that's actually telling stories, that reflects passions and suffering and (dare I say?) art and the mythic impulse (to use a coined phrase) -- with its capital letter. And by all rights, the Work needs its capital!
It is so easy to get bogged down in small-w work. It pays the bills. It's easily justifiable as a way to spend time. It has real actual deadlines. There's someone on the other end holding you accountable. And that makes it so, so easy to give small-w work the priority.
m_stiefvater just posted recently about how to write a novel. (Go read that post and come back. I'll wait.) She says:
This is what you say: “‘I’m writing the novel. Starting now. Not only that, but I’m finishing it.”
Focusing on the Work is the only way for that novel to ever become more than a dream.
I was chatting with a fellow freelancer about the balance of work vs. Work (in slightly different words) in an e-mail earlier today, and I offered advice, despite my not having mastered the balance. I almost always err on the side of work. And that means the Work often suffers or gets left behind. I need to follow m_stiefvater's advice: I'm writing the novel. Starting now.
Well... maybe starting after this deadline. :)
This wasn't a problem until recently, when I got a day job, because I could get all my Work done during the day and only rarely had small-w work (the paying, non-writing kind) to compete with it for time.
There are definitely days when I forget to think of the Work -- the writing that's actually telling stories, that reflects passions and suffering and (dare I say?) art and the mythic impulse (to use a coined phrase) -- with its capital letter. And by all rights, the Work needs its capital!
It is so easy to get bogged down in small-w work. It pays the bills. It's easily justifiable as a way to spend time. It has real actual deadlines. There's someone on the other end holding you accountable. And that makes it so, so easy to give small-w work the priority.
m_stiefvater just posted recently about how to write a novel. (Go read that post and come back. I'll wait.) She says:
This is what you say: “‘I’m writing the novel. Starting now. Not only that, but I’m finishing it.”
Focusing on the Work is the only way for that novel to ever become more than a dream.
I was chatting with a fellow freelancer about the balance of work vs. Work (in slightly different words) in an e-mail earlier today, and I offered advice, despite my not having mastered the balance. I almost always err on the side of work. And that means the Work often suffers or gets left behind. I need to follow m_stiefvater's advice: I'm writing the novel. Starting now.
Well... maybe starting after this deadline. :)