Letter 49: December 7, 2008
On the subject of online reminder services, a reader that I know and trust writes about one I hadn't heard of: " I've been using memotome.com for years now." Good, thank you, because I've found nothing that really replaces what the defunct Sandy gave me, I was seriously thinking about reviving my own homebrewed reminder website from before she came along but I had no time at all to do that, and this one looks like what I was looking for. I'll let you know. If I don't, the reminder didn't work.
Why have I no time? My next research project has come onstream six weeks earlier than expected. Suddenly I'm running around trying to recruit professional Hollywood movie writers who are willing to be interviewed right now. Or in the holiday period at least.
Don't introduce me to unproduced tv writer friends. But I do want to meet professional (including retired) Hollywood movie writers. This paragraph is not a solicitation. There is stuffy academic paperwork (I can say this because I drafted the darn thing myself) that I'd have to send to any potential volunteer. Do you know to whom I could send it?
Meanwhile: a couple of weeks back I was outlining this letter and I decided it would be about this: "I've just noticed that, although creative writer is one of the ways I define myself, I've never really liked doing creative writing. This is quite a shocking thought, given that I claim to teach productivity to writers. But there's no contradiction. I can name award-winning successful professionals who hate the experience of writing.
"To be more exact, let's say that I can’t remember the last time I did enjoy creative writing, other than on a team. Maybe in high school, when it was one of several options and a blissfully easy choice. I guess it allowed me to feel lazy or even rebellious - pulling a trick on teachers who expected us to do Work. But when writing is the work, the only option, it's different.
"I feel about writing the same way I feel about the Second World War. I wouldn't choose to live through the experience, but I'd be interested in having the memory, of knowing what it was like. I do enjoy reading my own stuff (diagnose that if you want). I do enjoy editing my own words; I can usually make them better, which I like. But I don't remember enjoying penning a first draft."
So that's where I stood two weeks ago.
For the past few days I have been away from home, using a hotel room, with my computer but with no internet connection. Well, there was an internet connection, and it was cheaper than the usual rate too, but the last hotel I stayed in had provided net for free... so I refused the fair offer, and boycotted the service.
And the result was that I got quite a lot of writing done, and enjoyed it. Rebellious mode again, you see. What in the Reversal Theory world we call negativistic.
And then I wrote the first full draft of this letter during a workshop where I "ought to" have been doing something else. Rebellious yet again!
So that's what works for me. Your experience may vary. But it's something you can try today: to get your writing done, make sure you have something more important to do.
David
David Jung McGarva
+1 (818) 707 1871
Write me: david at todayiwrite dot com
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