This piece reminded me of what Brendan Gill said to me once. He wrote for the New Yorker for 60 years as well as more than a dozen books. We became acquaintances working in the same office (not the NYer) because I was the only person who could fix his Mac computer. :)
Brendan said about writing, "Two good hours a day. That's all you need. Two good hours."
He also wrote only single drafts. (I sob a little thinking about that. Could never be me. Lol.)
Easier said than done. Especially when you don't have a steady job that is almost a sinecure, come from wealth, and live in the knowledge that your writing will be edited by a slew of world-class editors. And, are not juggling a gaggle of freelance assignments with deadlines looming.
Just something to think about on the days when you wonder how much is enough.
Okay first, love a friendship forged through computer DIYs. But, whew, yes, such an aspirational amount of time to crank something out. Reminds me of a tweet I saw at some point that was like 'If I have a full free writing day I will require 7 hours of tasks and 2 hours of writing, that's the only way'--which makes me think about part of the writing ritual sometimes just being the (on and off the page) throat-clearing, and maybe that's okay. And your point on the privilege of steady job thing feels so true too, when much of the psychic pie-chart of sitting down to write is indeed managing all those ancillary concerns...sigh.
It's fun to find each other in these nooks and crannies, yes.
I was just meaning to impart a feeling of permission that if you get into a flow for the amount of time that is somewhere around two hours, that it is OK to acknowledge that period as a good day's writing. It truly is. And, also what I think is an implication, that doing all the other things during a day is what nourishes and enables those two fruitful hours.
Working/playing, alone/together, lazy/workaholic--I can be all of these in a single day as well! (And thank you for the Fallen Fruit app reference! I need to add in the plum and pear trees we’ve been secretly sampling in our neighborhood.)
Makes me think of the Goethe quote I had above my desk for a while, "Do not hurry, do not rest" which I really aspired to, and then realized I sort of like the mixture of both, sprints of hurrying and sprints of resting, and maybe I had to accept that I was going to live both at once in the same day and just be okay with it...ha. And yes! Portland is such a good fruit tree forage zone :)
This piece reminded me of what Brendan Gill said to me once. He wrote for the New Yorker for 60 years as well as more than a dozen books. We became acquaintances working in the same office (not the NYer) because I was the only person who could fix his Mac computer. :)
Brendan said about writing, "Two good hours a day. That's all you need. Two good hours."
He also wrote only single drafts. (I sob a little thinking about that. Could never be me. Lol.)
Easier said than done. Especially when you don't have a steady job that is almost a sinecure, come from wealth, and live in the knowledge that your writing will be edited by a slew of world-class editors. And, are not juggling a gaggle of freelance assignments with deadlines looming.
Just something to think about on the days when you wonder how much is enough.
Okay first, love a friendship forged through computer DIYs. But, whew, yes, such an aspirational amount of time to crank something out. Reminds me of a tweet I saw at some point that was like 'If I have a full free writing day I will require 7 hours of tasks and 2 hours of writing, that's the only way'--which makes me think about part of the writing ritual sometimes just being the (on and off the page) throat-clearing, and maybe that's okay. And your point on the privilege of steady job thing feels so true too, when much of the psychic pie-chart of sitting down to write is indeed managing all those ancillary concerns...sigh.
It's fun to find each other in these nooks and crannies, yes.
I was just meaning to impart a feeling of permission that if you get into a flow for the amount of time that is somewhere around two hours, that it is OK to acknowledge that period as a good day's writing. It truly is. And, also what I think is an implication, that doing all the other things during a day is what nourishes and enables those two fruitful hours.
Til next time. . .,
I just read Wolfish! It was fantastic. I have dog-eared so many pages. Thank you!
Anne, I'm so thrilled to hear it resonated with you. Dog-earing the pages of this wolf book is the best possible outcome :)
Working/playing, alone/together, lazy/workaholic--I can be all of these in a single day as well! (And thank you for the Fallen Fruit app reference! I need to add in the plum and pear trees we’ve been secretly sampling in our neighborhood.)
Makes me think of the Goethe quote I had above my desk for a while, "Do not hurry, do not rest" which I really aspired to, and then realized I sort of like the mixture of both, sprints of hurrying and sprints of resting, and maybe I had to accept that I was going to live both at once in the same day and just be okay with it...ha. And yes! Portland is such a good fruit tree forage zone :)