It works for cult leaders and celebrities
I'm obsessed with POGO right now. I've made an artist playlist for him (boringly just named POGO) and have been listening to it on repeat, specifically his H.R. Puf'N'Stuf arrangement Living Island. I'm waiting like a crazy person for him to release more tracks.
How I stare at my screen at home,
wearing my Viking Helmet.
Which is a good way to transition into talking about writing, because I listen to a lot of trance/classical/soundtacks when attempting to be creative.
TPR has stalled in chapter two. I can't figure out how to change up the tone to where I need it to be, using mostly dialogue. I don't think I have the characterization right in those scenes, so I haven't figured out the way to properly write her and accomplish what needs to be done in that chapter. That's the Bad News.
The Good News is I decided to tap out a chapter way farther down the road that had a scene I really liked. And to be honest, TPR is a handful of really cool scenes and the rest of it is me trying to figure out how to tie it all together. So it may come out a little sweaty - mostly, I'm just trying to finish something for once.
There I am, writing very late at night and insomnia is setting in. Insomnia makes me a little bit manic - I talk too much about things I know people aren't very interested in and I am convinced every idea I'm having is great. It only lasts up until I fall asleep, but at 5AM I write like a champ. The descriptions are good, the dialogue flows nicely, and it's funny without trying. Without really noticing I wrote 1200 words.
Which leads me to this conclusion: being creative takes a stunning amount of delusion. You really have to believe what you're doing is amazing and worthwhile to keep doing it, and that often over-extends your natural levels of self-confidence.
I've had a pet theory that some writers drink or do drugs to achieve this zen level of delusion and come to rely on their habits to write. There's of course the Hemingway stereotype that the best writers are all drunks. The theory was probably largely inspired by Steven King's autobiography, On Writing. King wrote when he was trying to get clean he worried his writing would be terrible sober. He eventually found he could still write well, he just had to adapt to some new habits.
So that's the interesting side of the delusion coin - it doesn't really add anything to your technical ability or to the legitimacy of your ideas. It just gives you the lift you need to get up off the ground.
At this point, I think of my writing as another thing I'm trying to learn by doing - like HTML or cooking or parallel parking. I know I'm not doing it well yet because I don't recognize when the writing is good, but all that means is I need more practice. And I'm trying to get the practice but I'm also dealing with the mental block that I'm not good enough. That's where delusion helps and may justify a lot of all-nighters.
How I stare at my screen at home,
wearing my Viking Helmet.
Which is a good way to transition into talking about writing, because I listen to a lot of trance/classical/soundtacks when attempting to be creative.
TPR has stalled in chapter two. I can't figure out how to change up the tone to where I need it to be, using mostly dialogue. I don't think I have the characterization right in those scenes, so I haven't figured out the way to properly write her and accomplish what needs to be done in that chapter. That's the Bad News.
The Good News is I decided to tap out a chapter way farther down the road that had a scene I really liked. And to be honest, TPR is a handful of really cool scenes and the rest of it is me trying to figure out how to tie it all together. So it may come out a little sweaty - mostly, I'm just trying to finish something for once.
There I am, writing very late at night and insomnia is setting in. Insomnia makes me a little bit manic - I talk too much about things I know people aren't very interested in and I am convinced every idea I'm having is great. It only lasts up until I fall asleep, but at 5AM I write like a champ. The descriptions are good, the dialogue flows nicely, and it's funny without trying. Without really noticing I wrote 1200 words.
Which leads me to this conclusion: being creative takes a stunning amount of delusion. You really have to believe what you're doing is amazing and worthwhile to keep doing it, and that often over-extends your natural levels of self-confidence.
I've had a pet theory that some writers drink or do drugs to achieve this zen level of delusion and come to rely on their habits to write. There's of course the Hemingway stereotype that the best writers are all drunks. The theory was probably largely inspired by Steven King's autobiography, On Writing. King wrote when he was trying to get clean he worried his writing would be terrible sober. He eventually found he could still write well, he just had to adapt to some new habits.
So that's the interesting side of the delusion coin - it doesn't really add anything to your technical ability or to the legitimacy of your ideas. It just gives you the lift you need to get up off the ground.
At this point, I think of my writing as another thing I'm trying to learn by doing - like HTML or cooking or parallel parking. I know I'm not doing it well yet because I don't recognize when the writing is good, but all that means is I need more practice. And I'm trying to get the practice but I'm also dealing with the mental block that I'm not good enough. That's where delusion helps and may justify a lot of all-nighters.