Wednesday, October 2, 2013

When writers can't write...

Writing is not like any other job.

For people in construction, office work, food service or any other line of work, you can have a "bad" day. You know the kind...you just don't feel it. You get to work and nothing goes right, you stare at your work space like it is the first time you have ever seen it. So, you go through the motions and wait for the whistle to blow.

Not if you write for a living.

Believe it or not, writers have those days too...at least this one does. The thing is, at a normal job, you can "mail it in" every so often. However, as a writer, if you are not feeling the muse or simply lack any sense of motivation, it is a much bigger problem. Ideas congeal like bacon grease left in the pan. Even if a really good idea comes, you can't muster the energy to fully explore it.

Sometimes, I just want to turn off my computer and flop down on the couch with the remote...or lie down with my Kindle and read myself to sleep. It is worsened by days when I check my sales numbers and they have slipped. It starts that voice in the back of my head that says "Why bother?" And so the snowball gets larger and picks up speed...destroying everything in its path.

There is often a misconception when people learn what I do for a living. They envision a life of luxury, copious amounts of freedom. It was similar to when I was in radio. People just make this leap that since you are in the "entertainment" business, you have it easy, money falls from the sky, and you can frolic and make merriment all the live long day. If you mention the word "deadline" they really don't hear it. And that only fuels the idea that what we do is not really work. Therefore, how could we EVER have a bad day.

Don't get me wrong; I love what I do for a living. And I do well enough that I have not needed to go down to the local gas station to fill out an application. (I was an excellent bartender way back in the day, but being sober now, that is not a viable job consideration for me.) My point is that, sometimes, I just don't feel like going to work. And in this line of work, there are no sick days. You can't call the boss with that fake "sick" voice, add in some sniffles, and then play hooky from work.

I realized the other day that I have been working six or seven days a week, 10-14 hours a day for the last 8 months minus the camping trip during the 4th of July, and even then, I was catching up on reading and getting some reviews done. However, I will be the first to admit that I am only human...and sometimes...I just don't feel like going to work.

I used to take a week off and celebrate whenever I completed the latest project. Now, I move on to the next one. In this line of work, you are only as good as your most recent piece, and if you want to keep your name out there, you have to have something coming out fairly regularly. I imagine if you are Stephen King, you can do whatever you want, but you see? Now I am making the same assumptions about him that other make about me. I guess it is always easy to sit outside and look at that much greener and obviously easier to maintain grass just on the other side of the fence.


10 comments:

  1. I'm with you there! I wish I could write for a living though! :) I'm still at the 'struggling to make ends meet' stage! Yeah, Stephen King is some kind of god :)) Good luck with your writing. I hate the days when nothing comes, but tomorrow something will.

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    1. That is the beauty of it all. There is always tomorrow.

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  2. I cant really have an "off" day at work either, but thats because I might ACTUALLY kill someone instead of fictionally!! But I DO get days off and I use these to recharge my batts, sleep, make merry and generally cause online havoc..... so have some down time my friend, dont burn out! you have TOO many books I still want to read from you xxx

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    1. For some reason...all of my comments ended up in a SPAM folder. So, apologies for the delays. And yes...you have an important job where being "off" is a much greater problem. With me it is simply a matter of hitting the "delete" key.

      :-)

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  3. Ahhh, I remember the good ol days when I could work my 50-60 hours and call it quits. Days were longer back then. We had time for things like TV, Movies, computer games, dates...

    It was a simpler time ;-)

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    1. And now I am picturing the Monty Python sketch with them sitting around talking about how "rough" they had it growing up.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JK5kChbRw

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  4. Revisit "Tom Sawyer".
    Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it – namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign.

    That sir, is your issue in a nutshell. For everyone else, as well. Good luck and I hope you find your spark again soon. Perhaps a trip to an apple orchard is what you need this week. Pick a bag, buy some fresh pressed cider, simmer on the stove (and in the mind) and see if you can pick up the thread in the changing leaves. Fresh air might do you good.Besides, the dogs will love it.
    Jamie Smith

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    1. Splendid. And if only I liked apples...that sounds amazing.

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  5. Nailed that one my friend. I TRY to take a couple of days off after a project, I've yet to succeed. Write or Die.

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    1. I have no knowledge of this "Days off" thing of which you speak...

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