STARTING OR STALLING
Do you have a job (or several) you hate to do?
For me, it is bed making after washing the sheets.
I used to procrastinate, bribe others, complain and whine. One day, in a fit of pique, I decided to time myself. I was hoping to justify my bad attitude about the job. Imagine my shock and chagrin when I realized it took 5 minutes to do the job. Yup. Five minutes which triggered an hour of moaning and groaning. Now I wish I could say that in a wonderfully mature fashion I decide to never again complain. I didn’t. However, I do now manage to race to the bedroom during commercials and whip a bed together. Most commercial breaks are longer than 5 minutes.
There are other things I hate doing-or at least starting. Every morning I procrastinate about jumping into writing.
I know why I have this problem. It’s because I enter a different world, I get involved with my characters. I get so involved with them that I often emerge from a writing session wrung out emotionally to the point of exhaustion. I can sit and stare at the TV for long periods of time as I shift into my own world (the real one) again. It’s the investment of my emotions that makes it hard to cross that barrier into the other world.
I read a quote that describes my struggle. “At the moment of beginning, almost anything is more interesting than writing.”
Aristotle said ‘Well begun is half done.’ However he did not say how to get well begun.
I have yet to find a satisfactory way of getting past that barrier. I have lots of little tricks but I know they are tricks. Sometimes I fool myself with them. Sometimes I don’t.
To borrow a famous trademark slogan, I just need to do it because I know there’s a story that needs telling.
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Michelanglo
I’m no Michelangelo but perhaps I have a job to do-setting my story free from my beleaguered brain.
Comments
STARTING OR STALLING — No Comments
HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>