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.

[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...

[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.*

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

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

[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...

[casaubon.livejournal.com]

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

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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...

[gryphart.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

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.