(edited to add: Ye gads, but I talk a lot. It must be God channeling the Great Story through me.)
in On Writing, Stephen King talks about and helps quantify the idea that in order to pursue a true life of creativity, one must be prepared to do away with the distractions of the outside world.
I agree with that, in that even if you've been writing for a long time, even if you've got your system of Butt In Chair for two hours every day down pat, I think that there are plenty of elements in the rest of the world that can seriously detriment your ability to create. After all, isn't your mind running, no matter what? Mine is.
I can be a fairly disciplined writer, except when I'm really not. I used to have my life pretty pruned down and enclosed around writing, although partially I blame marriage for a change in this. After all, I'm not going to expect my wife to live a TV-less existence, just because I find it distracting. She's not a writer, that's my neurosis (sorry, I meant to type Higher Calling).
But I didn't realize until today how much it's started to pervade my life again. I spent most of the day watching TV with no regrets, and also no particular creative thoughts. I had one half-notion of a creative thought, but it was nothing more than a new direction for an old story. Hardly worth my salt for the whole day.
So! Er...roundabout way of asking: When you began to turn really inward toward creativity (a pretentious sounding thing, but to an extent, it has to be done) what did you do to shear the distractions out of your life? What did you do -- and what do you continue to do/struggle with -- in order to keep from wandering off in someone else's thickets instead of exploring and creating your own?
For me, it's little things. I've gotten my wife to stop asking me if I want to watch Crossing Jordan, Medium, NCIS, etc. The shows all have interesting and servicable storylines, but plenty of shows do. If she asks me, I say yes and I sit and watch...and then I watch Shark..and then I watch Deal or No Deal....and there goes my night.
So I've tried to prune down what TV I watch again, so that I'm back to watching interesting Discovery Channel types of shows. I have my devout shouts. I watch House, I watch Heroes. But otherwise...no more.
If my wife watches those other shows and I am not writing, then I sit next to her and read.
That's an example of me trying to shift back. I've wandered pretty far afield. What do you lot do?
in On Writing, Stephen King talks about and helps quantify the idea that in order to pursue a true life of creativity, one must be prepared to do away with the distractions of the outside world.
I agree with that, in that even if you've been writing for a long time, even if you've got your system of Butt In Chair for two hours every day down pat, I think that there are plenty of elements in the rest of the world that can seriously detriment your ability to create. After all, isn't your mind running, no matter what? Mine is.
I can be a fairly disciplined writer, except when I'm really not. I used to have my life pretty pruned down and enclosed around writing, although partially I blame marriage for a change in this. After all, I'm not going to expect my wife to live a TV-less existence, just because I find it distracting. She's not a writer, that's my neurosis (sorry, I meant to type Higher Calling).
But I didn't realize until today how much it's started to pervade my life again. I spent most of the day watching TV with no regrets, and also no particular creative thoughts. I had one half-notion of a creative thought, but it was nothing more than a new direction for an old story. Hardly worth my salt for the whole day.
So! Er...roundabout way of asking: When you began to turn really inward toward creativity (a pretentious sounding thing, but to an extent, it has to be done) what did you do to shear the distractions out of your life? What did you do -- and what do you continue to do/struggle with -- in order to keep from wandering off in someone else's thickets instead of exploring and creating your own?
For me, it's little things. I've gotten my wife to stop asking me if I want to watch Crossing Jordan, Medium, NCIS, etc. The shows all have interesting and servicable storylines, but plenty of shows do. If she asks me, I say yes and I sit and watch...and then I watch Shark..and then I watch Deal or No Deal....and there goes my night.
So I've tried to prune down what TV I watch again, so that I'm back to watching interesting Discovery Channel types of shows. I have my devout shouts. I watch House, I watch Heroes. But otherwise...no more.
If my wife watches those other shows and I am not writing, then I sit next to her and read.
That's an example of me trying to shift back. I've wandered pretty far afield. What do you lot do?
I do think I am on the interent a bit too much--it might be time to take a break from that.
