write a book

well I haven’t been doing this at all in the last three months. Men! They interfere with everything. Anyhow, I will get back to it. And in the meantime, I am letting you know I have another idea that came out of this recent shmozzle – except that I am reluctant to talk about it in public. But with regards to the first one, I will be starting on it again soon, but first I have to get something else of importance under way. I am working on that.

I got a good start on my book now. I have written about 15000 or more in the last month. Actually mostly in the last two weeks because for two weeks I didn’t write anything.

I just asked a friend who is going away for a month if i could housesit for her. I expect she will say yes but she has to consult with hubby.

Anyway if i do that i won’t be able to have internet connection there so i will be able to write without the distraction of the internet. Although in truth, i will only have two weeks as the second two weeks, i will have to go to the city for a course every day. But still two weeks away from the net could be enough to get me in a healthy groove.

And I will be able to read too. Which will be fabulous.

Not doing great but I have been doing somework. I work better when i get up earlier but i have been strugglign with that lately.

I have to admit that whilst earlier i felt like working on my book, now i don’t.

I will just struggle along with this daily. Most of my struggle is psychological. But i know so long as i am thinking aobut it, i will get htere eventually.

I don’t know why i got into this mode again. Generally i feel pretty good. maybe i was trying to do too much. (not with the writing but with everything). Oh well, the writing will come back.

I had about four months of procrastinating. someone suggested that i make a note just to take my jouranl out each day. And that was enough to get me started again. Yeah.

Today I wrote something!

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2294423.htm

Today we ride the pendulum of creativity that swings between writers block and hypergraphia.

Writers block and procrastination have been the trusty companions of writers from Joseph Conrad to Franz Kafka.

And then writers like Dostoevski suffered from hypergraphia and for his suffering he wrote 19 novels as well as other works. But for other writers like John Updike, writers block is as foreign as an empty page.

Geoff Dyer and Alice Flaherty have both swung on this pendulum.

Geoff Dyer set out to write a serious study of his literary idol DH Lawrence but instead he ended up writing Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of DH Lawrence which is an exhilarating and excruciating journey through the twists and turns of his procrastination about not writing about DH Lawrence.

Alice Flaherty is a neurologist who has written a book that investigates the link between creativity, the brain and emotion. It’s called The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writers Block and the Creative Brain.

Publications

Title: The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writers’ Block and the Creative Brain
Author: Alice Flaherty
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
ISBN:9780618485413

Title: Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of D.H. Lawrence
Author: Geoff Dyer
Publisher: Abacus
ISBN: 978-0-349-10858-2

The little book got me working regularly on my book. Though I have to admit it’s not in a totally productive way. But doing something is better than doing nothing.

I revised my book’s structure and Now i am reconsidering it again.

Anyway, so long as I keep working on it, its not a complete waste of time.

However, it appears to be unlikely that i will complete the task by september as originally hoped. Tehre are too many other stresses going on.

But… I am still hopeful.

I found a little book about writing. It is helpful. I might even try to apply it.

Tonight my fingers hurt a lot. I spend quite a lot of time on the computer these days and my fingers are not impressed. And I am not impressed that the time is in wasteful pursuits rather than writing this book of mine.

I have a longing for one those studio retreats where there is no internet, no job to go to and no people in my office. It’s a little wooden cottage in a bush setting, with a large glass window through which i can see a lovely green forest. In the forest i may take a stroll a couple of times a day. At night there is a communal dining room where the other writers gather for food and talk of an evening for an hour or two. But I don’t spend too much time there. Just enough to keep me sane and motivated.

The thing is, this job is not actually that hard. And I do feel i can make a reasonable go of it. A good go even. Next time, I am writing more on the road.

Anyway, I am going to get this done.

Oh and I am changing the due by date to the end of the year. September is not doable under the circumstances.