Dog tired (DOG EAR)
Dog tired (DOG EAR)
always say that there are days when you won’t feel like writing. Like, say, today.
It’s Thursday and I owe the vast consuming maw of the internet another short piece on writing. In that perfect world, I should have been developing a bit earlier in the week and refining it in my various downtimes (like when driving or even biking). Wednesday I’d take a break at work to compose something that I would review Wednesday night and post up Thursday. That would have been the plan.
Reality is bleaker.
In my reality, I’m playing with a couple of game design ideas, things I want to put together, some experimental stuff. And this means I’m thinking mostly about them, all the way through to midnight. This morning (for the second night in a row) I woke up at 4am, tired by wide awake, my mind spinning away with its rooster wakeup call. Yes, I did wake up with some new ideas (I wrote about doing that very thing in a recent Dog Ear). The solution is neat. The depredation is not. And I haven’t put a bit of effort into the blog post save some preliminary thought on it a couple of days back. So Thursday AM, no piece yet.
At work, we’re under a crunch and for most corporations crunch brings out the micromanagement in their hierarchies. So I’ve had meetings all damn day. 9:15. 9:30. 11:00. 11:30. And I still have a 2:00 coffee-gulper and possibly another loose meeting floating around like a ghost. The problem with these meetings is that it breaks up the day into useless chunks. I’m only writing at lunch because it’s all I’ve got. When I get home? I’m going to bed. Still dog tired from this morning.
As for what to write about, yeah, I did mention I had a good idea of a piece a few days back. When this happens I generally write email to myself so I can remind myself. Looked in my drafts (where I keep them). One email. One word. “Audience”.
That’s it? I remember it being something profound I’d thought it, something that was sharp and relevant. But now I couldn’t even guess what the reference was about. Since you guys are my audience, do you have any ideas on this? If so, let me know.
So yes, I’m tired and meeting-mush-headed and clueless. Perfect to write something about writing.
But write what you know. And so I am writing. And what’s the point?
(A) Often you are not going to want to write. Home and bed are looking really nice now. And…
(B) Also, often you are going to have to write on a topic with very little prepwork.
But the good thing is that I wrote this on the fly and it seems to be holding together. It’s not my masterpiece but it does capture this moment in my life and provides a tie-in lesson to writing. I have heard of authors who get a deadline crunch to produce vast amounts of creativity in a short span. For Fire and Bronze, I had two days to proof it. That’s writing. That’s life. I could turn this into a piece about childbirth and babies and it would probably read the same.
Anyway, if you are a writer, get ready for this sort of thing. You have to be able to find that “writer’s soul” even when life has plucked it from your body. Good luck!
Not a bad piece if I do say so myself