The Canadian Writers' Collective

Writing, and writerly tangents

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

I Tried to Organize Freedom, How Scandinavian of Me

As far as writing goes, nothing that’s ever worked for me has worked twice. I keep having to rediscover how to do it. For example: last time I went off my attention-deficit meds I wrote four stories in a whirlwind day and a half, one good enough to get published. So when I had a week off work last week, I tried it again. Two or three craggy little sentences! That’s it. And you should see my apartment! It was messy before. Now it’s a public health menace. But, as of Sunday, I’m back on meds and tidying up as you read this (probably) (or not) (most likely ‘not’). Another example: once I took my laptop down to the laundry room and wrote up a storm. The next few times I tried it-- Nothing. I have begun to think it’s the expectation of writing that makes my writing shy away from me. It needs to take me by surprise! Oh well. As long as it keeps taking me.
P.S. The title of this post is a line from a song by Bjork! Brownie points for guessing which one.

6 Comments:

Blogger Antonios Maltezos said...

Hey, a couple gems a years, and suddenly you find yourself on the fast track to somewhere. Quality over quantity, my friend. After you clean up your dump, force yourself to take some time off without thinking about the writing.

Wed Mar 19, 05:04:00 pm GMT-4  
Blogger Heather said...

Hmmmm writing for you is like me trying to get my daughter to sleep. My mom says the secret is in the way you hold your nose.

Wed Mar 19, 11:23:00 pm GMT-4  
Blogger Tricia Dower said...

I think you should spin around three times, stamp your feet and say, "Rumpelstiltskin!"

Thu Mar 20, 01:11:00 am GMT-4  
Blogger Andrew Tibbetts said...

Good suggestions. I will try them all! Thanks, folks.

Thu Mar 20, 02:34:00 pm GMT-4  
Blogger Anne C. said...

I don't know the song, but I just thought of this post, when for reasons that are still a little obscure to me, I was reading up on clichés used in music journalism, and found this:

"unquestioned fawning over anything scandinavian"

Fri Mar 21, 07:59:00 am GMT-4  
Blogger Brenia said...

Hunter from Homogenic. I love that line.

Sat Mar 05, 03:45:00 am GMT-5  

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