This morning as I wrote my 'Morning pages' (Julia Cameron - The Artists way), I pondered the need for finding a routine with my writing, that works with my personality, and my needs.
I have observed that many writers work in many different ways. Someone I know goes away for several days and writes solid, day and night and hardly sleeps or eats anything, but literally can get a whole first draft of a book done during that time.
If I did this, I would be in a hospital at the end of it!
My reality is that I am still living with Chronic fatigue syndrome, but am refusing to let it own me and shape my life anymore. It does not mean I cannot live a life I enjoy more, or that I cannot create a career for myself.
It does not mean I cannot be a published writer. Period.
Laura Hillenbrand, the author of Sea biscuit and Unbroken, also has the condition, and has managed the things that I am aiming for. Someone has walked this road before me, and shown me IT CAN BE DONE.
So I will do it.
I also don't want it to define me as a person or a writer, so I don't mention it much, and probably wont again, unless it's really relevant.
Writers with no health issue at all still face the same dilema's, as I saw in a recent documentary about Ian Rankin. We have to apply self discipline, over come doubt and get the thing done. Get the words on paper.
So, having reflected on and considered the things that get in my way, and acknowledging my needs and limitations, I am in the process of creating a routine that works.
A very real challenge for me, is that because I don't have a 'job', I spend a lot of time alone, too much really, and then writing is a solitary thing, so I need to strike a balance. I will talk about this more in a future post.
For today, I have decided that once I am up I will
- Write my morning pages (I will talk about morning pages in my next post), which gets all the clay out of my head.
- I will eat my breakfast.
- I will sit at my desk and write my blog for the day.
- I will have a rest and hot drink.
- I will make a start.
That's as far as I have got, apart from remembering that screen writer Richard Curtis says he always ends his working day with something he can pick straight up on the next day, and not at the end of something.
I think this is true of me.
I felt excited about writing today, because I have a story very roughly handwritten and want to type it up and start rejigging it today. So there isn't a feeling I've got to make the earth move and bring something into being that does not exist yet - no pressure.
Once I've made a start, I will do what I can, take a break and repeat. Some days I may only be able to work for 10 or 20 minutes, but I once wrote a whole short story in 20 minutes, and it didn't need much editing. Granted, I've no idea where it came from, and one can't rely on that sort of inspiration!
I'm just saying, all things are possible and where time is concerned I need to remember it can be quality rather than quantity. This encourages me.
I will charter my progress with this in future blog posts...right now it's time for a cuppa I believe!
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