[Note: had a double Quotable a couple of weeks ago. I’m running this one again for comments. Do you relate? Can you ever “take a vacation” from your writing?]
“Writing is a full-time job, it really is, and you never really take a vacation from it. I could go through a whole day and show you how every conscious moment—and the unconscious ones as well—were part of the business of being a writer. I could, but I won’t….I’ve got work to do.” – Lawrence Block
Love this, Jim!
It occurs to me that even walking away from my desk for 20-30 minutes is part of the business of writing.
What other occupation can claim that?
🤗
Even when I’m not working, my unconscious (“boys in the basement”) is working away. Such is the nature of a writer.
Even if you’re not processing a specific story, all of life is fodder for feeding your writing and you are constantly screening for moments that you might use to advantage in your writing.
When something difficult happens in life, occaisionally I have the presence of mind to write down what my body is feeling so I can use it in a story. What doesn’t kill you can go into a novel?
I’m going through a horrific period, with several surgeries in the literally immediate future (one tomorrow), and I’m paying attention, storing bits (one of my main characters is a doctor), and wondering how I will use some of the pieces for realism and color.
That’s being a writer, right?
Hope you feel better soon!
They postponed tomorrow’s surgery – a huge blow to getting it done – and now I’m forced to process (and observe) the disappointment at having to wait and go through all the prep again.
One of my romantic suspense novels have the characters traveling all over my home state in search of the heroine’s father, and they are being chased and attacked by the bad guys’ goons. My dedication is an apology to my family for thinking about danger in sand dunes, mobsters in the mountains, and exploding boats on a lake while we were on vacation.
Lawrence Block…goodness. I think I’ve read every WD column he ever wrote. He’s definitely right about a writer’s mind never taking a day off.