I write a lot. I write fiction every morning before work and sometimes on weekends. At work, I write extensively every day. So it may seem odd that I feel the need to develop a habit of writing.
Writing used to be my first choice of pastimes, but for several years that hasn’t been the case. When I’m bored at home, I surf the Internet. I play computer games. To a lesser extent, I watch television. None of these activities are inherently bad, nor would they be inherently regrettable if I found them the least bit rewarding. Instead, I always view the time spent, in retrospect, as wasted.
I do not have time to waste, and I have many interests that would be more rewarding to pursue. I like to read, to play guitar, to listen to music. Most important (and most enjoyable), I like to write. So I’m trying to redevelop that habit of reaching for pen and paper instead of the remote. Of launching Word instead of Firefox. Of updating my journal instead of levelling up in a game. I think I’ll be happier for it.
2 responses so far ↓
1 John Livingston // Jul 8, 2009 at 9:47 am
I like to refer to what you’ve described as Entertainment Remorse. When you lay on that brand new $1300 nonrefundable concrete slab pretending to be a mattress and you question your purchase; that’s Buyer’s Remorse, or possibly poor decision making. But when you look back at the hours lost to mindless pursuits and you regret it; that’s Entertainment Remorse.
) and work in different departments we both bare the weight of the same daily frustrations. Making the transition from technical wage slave to creative individual is difficult; at least it is for me. When I finally make it home and the end of the day chaos has subsided I’ve found that little compares to the mindless killing found in the average B-rated FPS. You see, that’s how I let it all unravel and purge my system of my daily does of hate.
I know exactly where you’re coming from. You know exactly where I’m coming from. We quite possibly have shared too much to each other. Even though we have offices in different corners (I have more windows
If I “allow myself” 30 – 45 minutes of Slaughter Time I can generally slip right into my evening persona and not feel that guilty responsibility toward my (mis)managed time. I guess you could say that simulated carnage is my therapist.
Maybe you shouldn’t keep yourself from unwinding, maybe you should let it happen and from time to time relax. Breath in. Breath out. Pull the trigger.
2 Terry Odell // Jul 13, 2009 at 9:48 am
Transition is the key. Since I no longer have a day job, I have to decide if I want to be a writer with office hours, or a writer who writes around other activities, be they chores or ‘entertainment.’
Mornings, I transition by getting my blog up, and visiting favorite blog sites. Then I look at the previous day’s dreck and deal with it.
During the day, it’s emails, chores, errands, etc. I take a formal lunch break watching a stupid TV show that has captured my fancy, then settle down to “serious” writing, which is still interrupted for a myriad reasons.
It seems that evenings are productive for me. All responsibilities are out of the way, and that’s when the majority of my word count happens. I also firmly believe all these words are the result of ‘head writing’ throughout the day, whether I’m at the computer or not.
My transitions here seem to be playing one of the 500 Solitaire games on my computer. Arranging the cards seems to arrange my thought processes.
However, I did get a taste of keeping “office hours” when I received a contract offer for a short story with the expectation that I’d write a second one to go along with it to meet the publisher’s word count requirements for each author in the anthology. My first “sight unseen” story, and I did work on it faithfully.
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