“Forget advice about finding the right atmosphere to coax your muse into the room. Forget candles, music, silence, a good chair, a cigarette, or putting the kids to sleep. It’s nice to have all your physical needs met before you write, but if you convince yourself that you can only write in a perfect world, you compound the problem of finding 20 free minutes with the problem of finding the right environment at the same time.”
It was published awhile back, but if you haven’t read Cory Doctorow on Writing in the Age of Distraction, do yourself a favor and GO THERE. Yes, you with your Second Life RSS feeds, and your OpenOffice, and IM and Facebook and cellphone; you with your candles lit and Tibetan chanting going on while you write. GO.
Thanks to Miss Erin for the reminder of this treasure.
Hallelujah! A post that doesn’t make me feel guilty for writing in the 21st century. It also reminds me of that quote that writing requires DEVOTION, not DISCIPLINE. I realize that those two D words are sides of the same coin, but to express it in the positive is sooo much more productive, at least for rebellious little me. 🙂 I seriously want my writing time to make me happy. It’s like that song, Passionate Kisses. “Shouldn’t I have this? Shouldn’t I have this…and more?”