Letter 26: June 30, 2008
I don't think I'll send a letter this week.
I've kept myself wonderfully busy on that research project I was bragging about last time; at the same time I'm making progress on a separate research contract which is almost complete; I have some business writing I'd like to have released a while ago; the pile of material waiting to go up on the Today I Write blog is dangerously high; I promised my research participants from last November a report on my findings, which became final recently; and I want to make improvements to an interactive website I wrote last year which has users throughout California. Oh, and I repaired some technical stuff on my website-in-law (http://www.monicamcgarva.com).
And with all that going on, there's a new large creative project I'm determined to begin on Tuesday.
So I don't think I'll send a letter this week.
But if I did send one - and it would be #26, our half anniversary, thank you reader - if I did, it might tell you about my own experience of being both a The Writers Guild member and a retired professional programmer in languages that don't even exist now.
Because the way I approach a computer program is the same way I wish I approached creative writing.
I start with a rough idea of what I want to achieve, what I want my product to go out and do for/to other people. And I write a version of it, and I see how it works and I see how it could be better, and I tweak it, and I see how the new version is, and I improve it, and so on.
Software engineers hate people like me. We run around the wheel of creativity that some theorists say creative people should run around. It's not businesslike but it gets the work done.
I'd like to be able to do creative prose the same way. I know some writers do. The people who say they don't know what their film scripts are about until they get to page 62 (or wherever). They must be inspired differently from me.
And maybe I should content myself with doing what I'm best at.
But no. What fun would that be?
Something you can try this week: Have more than one project going. Each one becomes a break from the other(s), and you don't need to take unproductive breaks, but you still get to feel pleasantly guilty. And I think that's a good thing.
David
David Jung McGarva
+1 (818) 707 1871
Write me: david at todayiwrite dot com
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