Gloria Steinem once said that she didn't like to write, that she liked to have written. I understand this all too well as writing is mostly staring into space, trying to figure out what the organic fucking structure of something is until you want to tear every last hair out and then some. Worse, the better you're writing, the worse you feel. When I'm not writing, I'm a terrific writer, and I know everything about the process and would love to tell the world, like the commercial about buying the world a Coke so they could sing in perfect harmony. If you ask me, I don't think there has been one better than that for Coke since, especially when they tried to pawn that ass nasty New Coke onto an unsuspecting public with Bill Cosby telling us how great it is. But when I am writing, I know almost nothing about what I'm doing except that I'm not doing anything else well. The laundry builds up, phone calls go unanswered, and my hair hasn't been touched by a styling product in many days.
Many writers have written about this particular brand of frustration -- waiting, struggling, writing stuff that has to be tossed. It's not physical work so there's bad posture involved, there's poor dietary habits, and a strange tendency to mumble to yourself. But without this pain, there is no good writing. I once knew someone who compared the whole ordeal to a group of monks who used to wear hair shirts and flog themselves with tiny sticks. Which at the time I thought was pretty stupid. Now it seems apt. I'm almost done with Second Day Reported, and I've always contended that the last ten percent of any writing project is the hardest. When I get done, I'm going to buy myself a Coke (a real one, not diet -- I tried the artificial and could never stomach it) and maybe do some laundry provided I can remember how.
Michelle's Spell of the Day
"I've been very lucky, considering what I look like and what I do." James Gandolfini
Cocktail Hour
Drinking writing ritual -- all caffeine, all the time. You can drink when you finish writing!
Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Sunday!
10 comments:
The hair shirt flagellants is a definitely effective image.
Even ill you're still beautiful!
Love the library collection behind you.
And one day I'll finish writing. The day that I die, I'm sure!
Michelle,
This is true, very true.
As far as drinks go, I don't have regular Coke since I'm hypoglycemic, but I have gotten used to the diet variety. Actually, I drink wine when I'm writing fairly often.
I can never truly get into the writing moment, especially with a honey-do list a mile long. It doesn't help when I'm obsessing over all that snow in my driveway either.
Now your making me feel bad. In that I never have those hair shirt hours, never obsess beyond the spending the moments doing what I do. After all less I move the laundry room to the writing table how can one do two things at once? Even if I were to ensure I had a supply of drawers sans skid marks, I could still only do the one thing at a time.
I suppose it is good though that I have no hair that needs styling and know nothing of the process of hair style or writing.
Maybe because I drink Diet Pepsi and don't care so much if the world has one or not.
I had to delete the above post because I got obsessed with grammar errors ha ha ha ha ha
I have often thought how nice it would be if all the writing that goes on in ones head could magically find its way onto paper. I wonder, do thoughts escape the brain and go out into the universe where someone else can actually write them down when they appear out of the blue?
Grammur errars ! What the heck is that,I hvae never maed one > that I can reclla.
Ok MB, You can write and be soul author. I will just provide info. Although I did get kind of lazy recovering from my snoze surgery.
My God I can barley wake up without my shower,let alone think very clearly.
I forgot. Go green, Mountain Dew it has the most caffine
"that ass nasty New Coke" - now that I remember! Coke Classic is the only pop that I drink. My experience with writing is that it sucks. I don't ever want to do it again, until the next time that I want to do it. Maybe I should start journaling again. :)
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