Joshua Winning's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"
Wednesday Warble: Routine? What routine?
This blog post originally appeared on the Sentinel Trilogy website: http://bit.ly/13m1nOt
Is there a word out there more boring than ‘routine’?
Admit it; there was a part of you that took one look at the title of this post and promptly fell into a coma, wasn’t there? Routine means hoovering the stairs, cramming into a tin can to travel to work and brushing your teeth twice a day (more if you love coffee). It’s painfully dull, and, frankly, we shouldn’t have to do it.
Yet this week I’ve been pretzelling myself into all sorts of magnificent shapes attempting to establish something called a writing routine. (Oh, the glamour.) Why? Because I’m told by various internet strangers (and many other non-internet strangers) that routine is pivotal to writing.
‘It gets the juices flowing!’ they holler. ‘Writing’s like a muscle – use it or loose it!’
Hence my daily trek to a local supermarket café that’s located conveniently near to the office I’m currently freelancing at. Yes, it resembles God’s waiting room and yes, the all-day breakfast looks like something you’d throw in a trough, but something quite miraculous has happened on these lunchtime jaunts.
I’ve started writing. In fact, I can’t stop. I sit down, plug into my iPod, and for 40 blissful minutes I re-enter the world of the Sentinels.
I’m currently hacking away at book two of the Sentinel trilogy (Ruins). There was a period of inactivity that came with releasing and promoting the first book, and the thrill of having people actually read my stuff.
With Sentinel now having enjoyed a little bit of success (read more about that here), I’m officially back in the swing of writing, and I’m loving it. Ideas are firing, characters are growing, and the book’s finally – finally! – taking shape in front of my eyes.
Not only that, but lugging my laptop across London every day is giving me a great cardio workout (even if the other commuters have made a few grumbles about the space-hogging backpack).
So, alright, those goodie-two-shoes routine-lovers might have it right after all. There might actually be something to this routine thing. For now, I’m a convert…
Is there a word out there more boring than ‘routine’?
Admit it; there was a part of you that took one look at the title of this post and promptly fell into a coma, wasn’t there? Routine means hoovering the stairs, cramming into a tin can to travel to work and brushing your teeth twice a day (more if you love coffee). It’s painfully dull, and, frankly, we shouldn’t have to do it.
Yet this week I’ve been pretzelling myself into all sorts of magnificent shapes attempting to establish something called a writing routine. (Oh, the glamour.) Why? Because I’m told by various internet strangers (and many other non-internet strangers) that routine is pivotal to writing.
‘It gets the juices flowing!’ they holler. ‘Writing’s like a muscle – use it or loose it!’
Hence my daily trek to a local supermarket café that’s located conveniently near to the office I’m currently freelancing at. Yes, it resembles God’s waiting room and yes, the all-day breakfast looks like something you’d throw in a trough, but something quite miraculous has happened on these lunchtime jaunts.
I’ve started writing. In fact, I can’t stop. I sit down, plug into my iPod, and for 40 blissful minutes I re-enter the world of the Sentinels.
I’m currently hacking away at book two of the Sentinel trilogy (Ruins). There was a period of inactivity that came with releasing and promoting the first book, and the thrill of having people actually read my stuff.
With Sentinel now having enjoyed a little bit of success (read more about that here), I’m officially back in the swing of writing, and I’m loving it. Ideas are firing, characters are growing, and the book’s finally – finally! – taking shape in front of my eyes.
Not only that, but lugging my laptop across London every day is giving me a great cardio workout (even if the other commuters have made a few grumbles about the space-hogging backpack).
So, alright, those goodie-two-shoes routine-lovers might have it right after all. There might actually be something to this routine thing. For now, I’m a convert…
You feel dull, you have a headache, nobody loves you – write!
A fellow writer friend sent this little nugget of writerly wisdom over, and I liked it so much I thought I’d share…
“Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must be one – then, I say, write. You feel dull, you have a headache, nobody loves you – write. It all seems hopeless, that famous “inspiration” will not come – write. If you are a great genius, you will make your own rules; but if you are not–and the odds are heavily against it – go to your desk, no matter how high or low your mood, face the icy challenge of the paper - write. Sooner or later the goddess will recognize in this a devotional act worthy of benison and grace. But if what I am trying to say seems nonsense, do not attempt to write for a living. Try elsewhere, making sure the position carries a pension.”
(Encore magazine, 1962; quoted in J. B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author by Susan Cooper. Harper & Row, 1971)
Via: http://thesentineltrilogy.com/2013/07...
“Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must be one – then, I say, write. You feel dull, you have a headache, nobody loves you – write. It all seems hopeless, that famous “inspiration” will not come – write. If you are a great genius, you will make your own rules; but if you are not–and the odds are heavily against it – go to your desk, no matter how high or low your mood, face the icy challenge of the paper - write. Sooner or later the goddess will recognize in this a devotional act worthy of benison and grace. But if what I am trying to say seems nonsense, do not attempt to write for a living. Try elsewhere, making sure the position carries a pension.”
(Encore magazine, 1962; quoted in J. B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author by Susan Cooper. Harper & Row, 1971)
Via: http://thesentineltrilogy.com/2013/07...
