For my writing friends

This is something one of my favorite authors wrote

(Stephen King has something similar in his book “On writing”).

and for those aspiring writers, it’s some words of good advice

(I think I need to remember this more often).

Make A Space For Writing

(This isn’t a new rant. It’s an old one. Published here at the request of someone who shamelessly lost her last copy.)

1) Rip the phone out of the wall. The telephone is a time-stealer. Or, let the answering machine pick up all the calls and you return them later.

2) Inform the other members of the household that they are not to interrupt you while you are writing unless their insurance is paid up. I once had a housemate who didn’t understand this. One day, while he was trying to interrupt me about something, I picked up the phone and called Forest Lawn and reserved a funeral plot in his name. Sometimes you have to sit down with other family members and ask them if they are committed to your success in writing or not. If not, divorce them or move out. If yes, then enlist them in a conspiracy to keep you from being interrupted while you’re working. Fredric Brown used to wear a little red cap while he was working and thinking — and his wife knew not to bother him when he was wearing his working hat.

My mother knows that if she calls me and I say, “I’m working,” that it doesn’t mean I don’t love her. It means I’m so damned preoccupied that she will not have an intelligent conversation with me of any kind. So she says, “Bye, I’ll call later.” And she does.

3) Hang a sign on the door: “Bubonic Plague Quarantine. Salesmen, Evangelists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, College Students selling magazine subscriptions, and Girl Scouts selling cookies will be fed to the gorilla. Do not disturb. This means you. People who ignore this notice do so at their own risk.” Slam the door in the face of anyone who knocks uninvited. Disconnect the doorbell. Have the dog debarked.

4) Set a schedule. 10-12 every day (or whatever you choose) are your working hours, just as if you were reporting to work in a factory. Do not let yourself have your favorite dessert if you didn’t keep to your schedule. (I’ll tell you about keeping an effectiveness statistic later on.)

5) All of the above is the warmup. Take a walk around the block. Take a hot bath. (The Archimedes Solution). Relax your body before you sit down to work. It helps to spend an hour a day catching up on your magazines or your reading. (Consider this part of recharging the battery.) Now, when you sit down at your machine . . . close your eyes for a minute. Rest your head in your hands. Imagine. Remember why you started writing this piece in the first place. Remember the enthusiasm you had for it. Remember the emotional feeling you had. Remember the intellectual excitement. Remember the passion. Remembering something is also the act of *recreating* it. If you can get back inside your passion for the story — and you can if you’re willing to spend some time remembering the original feeling you had that started you on this work — then you will find that you have re-energized yourself and the work.

Posted by David Gerrold

4:58 PM, Sunday, January 11, 2004

http://www.gerrold.com

http://www.chtorr.com