The Myth of Inspiration
To stay with the revision thread for a little while longer, I'm thinking of the kinds of writing I do on a daily basis, and how that fits into my schedule. I'm finding that I'm really always writing, some of it just happens to be in my head, and some of it just really uses different parts of my brain/awareness/consciousness.
Revising requires such a different kind of energy than does drafting a new story, and so I find I'm only really able to revise in the morning, while I prefer to write new stuff later at night. I get into new stuff so quickly and so completely that I don't need to have the reserves--my soul can be, as Joyce Carol Oates famously said, "as thin as a playing card," and I can get my ass in the seat for new work. But revising--while it's possible for me to force myself into it--is a much harder endeavor, and requires my best concentration and energy.
So my schedule has become split this way--I have so much old work that needs attention, and so much new work that I've just finished or am in the process of drafting--really, this prolific period is a blessing, but when to get to all that needs to be done!--and I'm revising in the morning, living my life in between, and then writing at the end of the day.
That in between part though, still finds me in the process of thinking, even unconsciously, about the work I'm doing. I think this is why it's so important to stay in the middle of writing--you never give your unconscious mind a chance to drift away--and so you're more likely to stay with it, to find the solutions to the problems that are driving you mad, and to be ready to write the scene you never thought you could write. It's an old cliche to talk about marathons, but if your writing career is the longest, hardest and greatest run you'll ever take, than it is absolutely essential to stay trained, to be ready at every mile marker to go further.
I write while I'm cooking, while I'm drifting off to sleep, even when I'm drunk--it's just always there, so why not tinker with it?
With my schedule in place, I'm getting more and more into process, and really enjoying the small steps along the way. I'm not so impatient any more to just see something done. I know things will get done, but as I've said before, pushing onward against chaos, even in the tiniest increments, is getting to be its own reward.
Inspiration is a myth. It's not that it doesn't exist--it does--but it's not what gets books written. A good schedule is inspiration's--and a book's--best handmaiden.
Revising requires such a different kind of energy than does drafting a new story, and so I find I'm only really able to revise in the morning, while I prefer to write new stuff later at night. I get into new stuff so quickly and so completely that I don't need to have the reserves--my soul can be, as Joyce Carol Oates famously said, "as thin as a playing card," and I can get my ass in the seat for new work. But revising--while it's possible for me to force myself into it--is a much harder endeavor, and requires my best concentration and energy.
So my schedule has become split this way--I have so much old work that needs attention, and so much new work that I've just finished or am in the process of drafting--really, this prolific period is a blessing, but when to get to all that needs to be done!--and I'm revising in the morning, living my life in between, and then writing at the end of the day.
That in between part though, still finds me in the process of thinking, even unconsciously, about the work I'm doing. I think this is why it's so important to stay in the middle of writing--you never give your unconscious mind a chance to drift away--and so you're more likely to stay with it, to find the solutions to the problems that are driving you mad, and to be ready to write the scene you never thought you could write. It's an old cliche to talk about marathons, but if your writing career is the longest, hardest and greatest run you'll ever take, than it is absolutely essential to stay trained, to be ready at every mile marker to go further.
I write while I'm cooking, while I'm drifting off to sleep, even when I'm drunk--it's just always there, so why not tinker with it?
With my schedule in place, I'm getting more and more into process, and really enjoying the small steps along the way. I'm not so impatient any more to just see something done. I know things will get done, but as I've said before, pushing onward against chaos, even in the tiniest increments, is getting to be its own reward.
Inspiration is a myth. It's not that it doesn't exist--it does--but it's not what gets books written. A good schedule is inspiration's--and a book's--best handmaiden.
posted by Tiffany Hamburger at
1:01 PM
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