How NOT writing can help your writing
This is a lesson I learned yesterday, and I’m still getting to grips with what it means.
You see, I have a book to write this week, and as of yesterday morning I still had about 23 pages to write. So I thought okay, I’ll split it between three days and do around seven pages a day. It’ll be finished by Sunday, no problem.
And then we had nice weather on Friday (if you live in the UK, you’ll know what a newsworthy event that is!) and I was suddenly struck by an overwhelming urge to wash, wax and generally improve the appearance of our car (if you know me, you’ll know what a newsworthy event THAT is as well…).
That book was still on my mind, and I knew I’d have to spend Friday evening working to make up for it, but once I had started washing the car my mind drifted away from my writing and I enjoyed simply doing something physical away from my workspace. And after we’d had dinner I finally got started writing at about 9pm last night.
And by half eleven I had done TEN pages – and they were ten GOOD pages too. It just flowed, and it really made me think that the break had actually done me good. It does require a certain amount of trust because you know you are going to have less time to do your writing, but you can get more done in less time because you’ve had that break to blow away the cobwebs in your head.
So I will be experimenting with this a little more in the weeks to come. Stay tuned for updates!
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