Douglas takes another bath...
As someone who fancies herself as a writer...well, occasionally, but not whilst drinking alcohol and never on a full stomach...I am much cheered by Douglas Adams accounts of dealing with writer's block. Actually most of his strategies seemed to avoid any attempts to write at all, so 'dealing with' is probably too strong a description...most of these strategies took him well away from his keyboard, and often involved bath-taking of epic proportions.
Despite being a pretty well-organised and deadline-focussed person I find that my abilities to avoid actually getting on with writing are becoming ever more creative. All of them are, however, without exception, totally useless and unproductive things to do. If only I could waste time by, say, weeding or ironing or cleaning or any of the other unpromising but necessary tasks...instead I find myself reading blogs, planning holidays that I will probably never take, or researching the best party games for a 9-year-old's birthday party.
At least Douglas was clean, if a long way from published.
As someone who fancies herself as a writer...well, occasionally, but not whilst drinking alcohol and never on a full stomach...I am much cheered by Douglas Adams accounts of dealing with writer's block. Actually most of his strategies seemed to avoid any attempts to write at all, so 'dealing with' is probably too strong a description...most of these strategies took him well away from his keyboard, and often involved bath-taking of epic proportions.
Despite being a pretty well-organised and deadline-focussed person I find that my abilities to avoid actually getting on with writing are becoming ever more creative. All of them are, however, without exception, totally useless and unproductive things to do. If only I could waste time by, say, weeding or ironing or cleaning or any of the other unpromising but necessary tasks...instead I find myself reading blogs, planning holidays that I will probably never take, or researching the best party games for a 9-year-old's birthday party.
At least Douglas was clean, if a long way from published.
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