Started...

[sleigh]

I couldn't stand it any more. This morning, I kicked up Scrivener and started putting words down for A MAGIC OF DAWN.

I really don't like 'not writing...' I feel lost and unmoored if I'm not actively working on something.

How about you? Are you able to just 'relax and do nothing'?

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can. I have a great capacity for doing nothing.

K.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

And you also have a great capacity for doing quite a lot, from what I've seen.

[madtruk.livejournal.com]

Yes. Sundays are my favorite nothing days, but I'm not overly choosy.

This could explain my long genesis on the CD...

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

My problem is that there are so many things I'd like to do, and not enough time to do them all in...

[(Anonymous)]

Ah but nothing is a very serious thing to do. Although I do admit to thinking and occasionally writing during that time, mostly I like to sit on the back porch, listen to morning marsh sounds, drink my coffee, and read the funnies. Then everyone else gets up and that's all she wrote :).

[bram452.livejournal.com]

Nope. Can't do it. I keep looking ahead to the mythical day when I'll have nothing in particular to do, and just bum around the house, play video games, read something that doesn't have a project attached to it. It's not going to happen. I have too many projects lined up, and they're all *fun.*

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's pretty much where I am...

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

No, I always feel guilty and that I should be doing something constructive.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Guilt does play a part in it for me, I have to admit. I feel guilty if I'm just 'lounging about..."

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Working in the corporate world got me used to wasting time. In many ways I regret having learned the skill, though it's made me a fair amount of money.

At home, I can't do nothing, but can float along on low-level activities, such as LJ. I wish I had more get up and go...

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Back when I worked in the corporate world, I used to steal all sorts of down time for my own work. I keep my current WIP on the computer with a spreadsheet ready to cover it if someone walked into my office...

[casaubon.livejournal.com]

No. I've got kids, they won't let me. :)

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

:-) Yeah, kids = no down time.

[madtruk.livejournal.com]

Not true-one just has to like 6am on a Sunday ;-)

[alces2.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can relax and do nothing but not consistently. I really can't stay in bed once light shines through the window. However I can meditate in stillness for 30 or 40 minutes or is that also actually doing something?

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Meditation... I don't know -- to me that kinda counts as 'doing something.' :-)

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

I didn't used to be able to relax and do nothing. For a number of years I sold crafts at the fall bazaars around here, and every spare minute all year long I was knitting, bookbinding, sewing, soapmaking, ribbon weaving ... whatever. It got to the point that I couldn't watch a movie or TV without knitting needles in hand - I felt like I was wasting time. If I had 5 minutes waiting somewhere - the doctor, in line - I would get impatient to be doing something.

Then I had a child. After I finished his baptismal over robe just before he was 2 months old, I didn't knit again for a whole year. Just like that. It's been two years now and I'm doing a little more knitting and stuff now, but I didn't do the fall craft fairs last year, and I have no problem just sitting around doing not much at all whenever C will let me. It's very relaxing. Heh.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

I've noticed the knitting with several female friends -- their hands are always occupied.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I find it important for me to do nothing for periods of time. It helps to refresh me for whatever tasks I might take up after.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

I can understand that intellectually, but can't manage it in real life.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Attaboy. We don't like you not writing either...

And, nope. I am apparently useless at doing nothing. This used not to be the case, but the long lazy snows of yesteryear are gone, thawed, melted away...

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

It's one of the things I often say to students: "If you're not already writing on your own, there's a good chance you're not a Writer."

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Indeed. And likewise, if they can be put off by learning how hard the work is and how grim'n'awful the life (I have lots of stories about how grim'n'awful the life can be), then the same applies.

[gryphart.livejournal.com]

Nope. I can do it for a day or two, but much more than that and the art guilt sets in.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

As I said to someone above, yep, guilt does enter into it. I feel 'guilty' for not getting the writing done. Funny, though, I never feel guilty for not getting the laundry done or cutting the grass.... :-)

[lensedqso.livejournal.com]

I'm a binge and purge writer which can be very scary when a deadline looms but makes me feel super productive in one of the binge periods. I've written ten or twelve short pieces or 30 page chapters of technical material in a day many times, and I've also stared at a blank page trying to figure out some way to consciously move myself into productivity more times than I'd like.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Wow, we're polar opposites on the writing process part. I'm a "slow and steady" writer. I need to work a bit every day. I rarely have days when I get more than a few thousand words down.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I can happily relax and do nothing for reasonable amounts of time. I like cloud-gazing and walking outside and other relaxing things.

After I finish a piece of writing, I get a proportional lull before the pressure builds up again. Usually 5 days or so is my max without writing anything, though after a big project it may go a little longer before another one kicks in.

What's maddening is having to spend every waking moment scrambling to make money, and never making enough to come close to meeting ends.

Re: Thoughts

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

That last statement, unfortunately, I know very well also... :-)

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

(Without sarcasm) Good luck with that!