Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Writer's Exhaustion

Have you ever just wanted to write and write and write. Beyond reason?

I started this morning writing longhand which I haven't done in ages. I mean, I plot and take notes, but I don't write actual scenes. This morning, looking at another hour and a half at the rink, I decided to go for it. I read a couple of pages of my manuscript to where I'd left off. When I got to the rink I sat down with a yellow pad and wrote two pages... and that was with interruptions. Came home, worked on some nonfiction stuff and started in. I had a bunch of other errands to run including three more trips to the rink, but every spare minute I ran back to the computer and wrote. once the kids were at work I had several solid hours to work. Not that I work without stopping. Sometimes when I write I type a few sentences or a paragraph and then get up and wander around for a minute. Put in a load of laundry, wipe down the counters or something like that. then I come back and write a bit more. Sometimes I do write an uninterupted page or two, but I usually get up and do something while my mind works out the next scene. Does anyone else do that?

Now, I am tired... I have had several nights of little sleep and should be in bed... but I want to write. I have a few more ideas and would love to finish chapter one. I have written sixteen pages in the last two days and think I have a couple more till the end... I want to do it! But would also love sleep. Mmmmm. Sleep.

I'll tell you which won tomorrow.

2 comments:

Shannon McKelden said...

I totally do that! I sit and write a bit, then wander around, talking to myself sometimes. :-) Put laundry in, get a snack, let the dog in or out, etc. Then go back. This is fine with my writing...lets my mind work things out. Not so good when it comes to my day job, where I get paid by how much I type. Hard to type when you've got your head in the fridge. :-)

Shannon

Rachel Vincent said...

Nope. When I'm rough drafting, if I can't sit for a minimum of a solid hour (2-4 hours is better, which is why I get most of it done at night), I won't get anything done, short of blog-hopping.

But we all do it differently. Thank goodness.