It’s September and time to give this blog a poke in the ribs. It seems appropriate to post an entry about not writing, something I have done a lot of lately. I could be like the Barbara Stanwyck character in Ball of Fire when she gives Gary Cooper her list of excuses for screwing him over—it’s a blank sheet of paper. And he says, “The handwriting of a, well, what would be your word for it?” And she says “Tramp” but not until after he leaves so he doesn’t see how much she wants to be a better person for him. I digress, but hey, there’s one of my excuses for not writing. Turner Classic Movies. My word for it? Lazy.
Oh sure, I have the other usual excuses. Work. Moving. Family stuff. And it seems like every time I did sit down to write this summer, I drew “quite a tidy blank” (like Katharine Hepburn in Philadelphia Story).
What happens is, when I have an idea for a story and sit down to write it, I think of another story I need to polish. I open that one up and then start to panic because I really should be sending out query letters for my completed novel. But maybe I should wait until I get a few of these stories finished up. Except the novel is a bird in the hand. It’s done. But writing query letters is so intimidating! Okay, so I’ll just finish up this story and call it a day. Except while I dithered, the day went by. Time for dinner, time for bed, time for some other distraction.
See? I’m not blocked so much as dazzled by all the possibilities. As well as lazy. But Barbara’s character (Sugarpuss O’Shea) knew there were no excuses. If she could work through her insecurities (she was an uneducated stripper) I can get through mine (what if this sucks). Push past the comfort zone (Sugarpuss: gangster boyfriend played by Dana Andrews. Me: Turner Classic Movies). When you finally get that story started or those queries written—well, it’s no Gary Cooper, but an excellent reward just the same.
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4 comments:
Bravo! An entry about not writing! Exactly what I’ve been doing this whole month. My cheap cable package doesn’t provide me with the luxury of Turner Classic Movies so I watch anything to avoid writing query letters. Project Runway. It’s Me or the Dog. Animal Cops Detroit. Do you think that maybe it’s because I’m dazzled by the possibilities also?
Leslie, your blog made me want to do 2 things, get back to writing (I too have been a slacker) and start watching Turner Classic movie. I suppose those are 2 mutually exclusive things. I think wanting 2 mutually exclusive things is the definition of neurotic. But doesn't being neurotic make us better writers (at least Woody Allen would say so). Oh well, rambling, but at least I'm writing. Great post, but I need to end this now because I have a bazillion old stories that need a little tweaking...
I can never give up my Turner Classic Movies. Project Runway goes without saying.
Put one foot in front of the other........
It is all true. Summer for me is a very hard time--trying to balance family and that thing we are supposed to be doing. And yeah, not much going on here--except the day before you posted this, I started something/continued something. But there is always that panic that follows a period of written word silence--that I forgot HOW to write.
Liz
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