So, I have stalled on this writing a novel thing pretty badly. It was a stressful week at work, but mostly it's that I suck at setting aside a couple hours every day to write. This exercise would absolutely be easier for me if there was a class or a meeting or something where other people expected me to be there and write. I tend to honor my commitments to other people's time. To my own time? Meh. I'd rather procrastinate and make some bolognese and drink wine and watch Boardwalk.
Fortunately, several things have inspired me to stay writing.
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| Mike at Myopic. |
One: I don't want to jinx it, but this weather is fantastic and not normal. We were showing Mike's cousin through Wicker Park, walking around without coats on in November. I haven't wandered up and down Milwaukee Ave in awhile, and the light was nice and everything seemed to merit the creation of a backstory. Furniture stores with half-normal-looking couches next to chairs in the shape of high-heel leopard print shoes. Graffiti and paste-up purple monkeys and murals that were graffiti-ed over and repainted again. Neon and splinters and dirt as a backdrop for so many young people wearing over-sized tortoise shell eye glasses. Browsing at Myopic Books and looking out through the second-story window into the art studios across the street, where a gold sequined sheet was draped over a couch. Entire novels could be written just sitting there for an afternoon.
Two: This article about Mindy Kaling made me cry on the bus yesterday. I adore her and loved her book and didn't know that her mother had died recently of pancreatic cancer. I can't imagine losing your mother and then learning that you'd been green-lighted for your very own sitcom. But this is how life works, right? Huge highs and lows and very little control over what hits when. Having been through my own mom getting sick with pancreatic cancer as we were planning our wedding this year, I admire Mindy Kaling even more. Because you just have to keep doing your thing. One of her coworkers is quoted about how Mindy got to where she is: “I think that she just decides she can do something and then does it.”
Three: Mike took me to see Henry Rollins at Old Town last night and oh my goodness can that man talk. He spoke for 2.5+ hours straight without taking a sip of water. I wasn't thrilled with his re-hashing of campaign season (I've had ENOUGH of that, even from a person who's advocating for lots of things I believe in, too) but I was entirely enthralled with his storytelling. From tales of his earliest punk rock touring days, to recounting touching meetings with fans, to filming a documentary about Pentecostal snake handlers, he reels you in for every last detail. It's easy to tell that he's invested in his work (in brief, his work is his life and his life is insane) and so as a listener you become completely interested in what will happen to him next. I was snagged, even if my behind was sore from sitting for so long. He kept repeating that we all needed to be "charismatic, heroic and kind." I think that borrows a bit from Vonnegut, but it's sound advice.
Four: Oh, The Oatmeal. Matt Inman is a brilliant writer who makes hilarious comics on his internet website and has helped a few great causes simply by rallying people around the funny. He wrote this week about how he writes and comes up with funny ideas as a content creator (in addition, he covers how internet comments are evil and the joys and perils of working from home). I hope he keeps writing and making comics for a long, long time.
So, lots to be inspired by and signs that writing is work and is hard but maybe worth it so stop whining. That is all. Off to write.
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