You know what we writers are like. We're free and easy spirits, living a cool, bohemian kind of lifestyle. We swan in and out of cafes, drinking copious amounts of coffee and watching as life goes by, notepad at the ready to jot down anything we notice that we can use later in the services of our writing.
We're cool customers, unruffled by life. Marching to a different drum as we let ourselves be driven by our creative urges.
Well, I can't speak for any other writers out there, but I absolutely know that this isn't me at all.
I'm not cool. I'm not composed. I don't lead any kind of relaxed, bohemian existence. I'm totally not the sort of person who just goes with the flow. Truth is, I'm neurotic as hell.
I worry about everything. I get myself all worked up about nothing. I make a big deal about even the slightest of disturbances. If there was anybody who could possibly be a poster boy for neurotics anonymous, I reckon it would be me.
I have to say that I am quite cool and relaxed about my neurotic nature. I even find it quite useful. I reckon that obsessing over fiddly little details is actually a pretty valuable quality for a novelist. And this obsessiveness also helps me to maintain my concentration for the extended periods required to actually write a complete novel - and then go back and rewrite it again and again and again.
So far from seeing creativity and neurotic-ness (honestly, I tried to google a noun version of neurotic and couldn't find one - that's how neurotic I am) as exclusive, I actually see them as a good combination. Maybe we need a new word to describe it - creotic or something.
Anyway, to anyone out there, have a great and creotic week. And see you at exactly the same time next week (you know I'll be here, and now you know why).
We're cool customers, unruffled by life. Marching to a different drum as we let ourselves be driven by our creative urges.
Well, I can't speak for any other writers out there, but I absolutely know that this isn't me at all.
I'm not cool. I'm not composed. I don't lead any kind of relaxed, bohemian existence. I'm totally not the sort of person who just goes with the flow. Truth is, I'm neurotic as hell.
I worry about everything. I get myself all worked up about nothing. I make a big deal about even the slightest of disturbances. If there was anybody who could possibly be a poster boy for neurotics anonymous, I reckon it would be me.
I have to say that I am quite cool and relaxed about my neurotic nature. I even find it quite useful. I reckon that obsessing over fiddly little details is actually a pretty valuable quality for a novelist. And this obsessiveness also helps me to maintain my concentration for the extended periods required to actually write a complete novel - and then go back and rewrite it again and again and again.
So far from seeing creativity and neurotic-ness (honestly, I tried to google a noun version of neurotic and couldn't find one - that's how neurotic I am) as exclusive, I actually see them as a good combination. Maybe we need a new word to describe it - creotic or something.
Anyway, to anyone out there, have a great and creotic week. And see you at exactly the same time next week (you know I'll be here, and now you know why).
Would the noun not simply be ‘neurosis’? (Although why Word wants to change that to its plural I have no idea.) All you have to do is spend five minutes on Facebook to be reassured: you’re in good company. There aren’t many level-headed writers out there. I think it’s a prerequisite actually, that we be a little crazy and ‘crazy’ expresses itself via a wide range of symptoms. I’m definitely not right and haven’t been for years but we get stuff done in between the cracks. When you look at the truly great writers they’re all screwed up. Rational people don’t write. They have real lives. I personally don’t get them. I don’t know how anyone can be alive and not need to write. That shows just how crazy I am.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand this at all. When I first wrote my book, I absolutely loved it! ... Right up until I hated it! Then I did some revisions and loved it again. ... Then I re-read it and hated it again. But then I fixed one more time, and loved it again. The I REALLY hated it, but later I REALLY REALLY REALLY loved it.
ReplyDeleteSo really... what are you talking about?
Disregard the typos. :p
DeleteI can't edit them. :(