Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: thoughtful
  • Music: Heather Dale, 'Mordred's Lullabye.'

Ah, the inside of my brain. Now with bonus Lilly.

The fascinating thing about the speed at which I tend to work is the way that I always feel like I'm not getting anything done. To quote Amy, "Even though Superman can move super-fast, time feels the same for him as it does for everybody else." So while my idea of a 'slow day' may look like some other people's idea of 'so productive I wouldn't be able to move for a week,' the agonies of feeling like I've been goofing off are just as severe for me as they are for everybody else.

I get scolded for this periodically, since I tend to get frustrated and whine. Another friend likened it to that lady who only needs to lose five pounds, yet complains every time she accidentally ingests a calorie. To which I can only note that those five pounds may mark the end of a two hundred pound journey. I'm as fast as I am because I've always ridden myself to move faster, move cleaner, and get more done.

Watching other people at work is truly a fascinating thing for me, because they're chasing the same end through methods which are, quite often, entirely foreign. This is also why I say that there's no 'one true way' to write, beyond the part where all writing eventually needs to involve putting words on paper. (Although even that's questionable, since I know people who've composed and memorized stories and poetry without every writing anything down. If they perform it the same way every time, isn't it still something they wrote? Oral tradition and the rise of podcasting as a method of getting stories out there are changing 'wrote' to mean more than just the act of physically recording words on a page.)

Lilly is ecstatic about the fact that I'm writing again; she feels that my adoration of the strange clicky-box is paid for by the fact that when I'm adoring it, I tend to sit still for long periods of time, thus giving myself ample time to pet the cat. I think she senses that the ailing health of my older feline means something, but hasn't yet put together the connection between 'Nyssa isn't doing well' and 'Mommy keeps looking at pictures of Siamese kittens on the clicky-box screen.'

Won't she be surprised? And, as a secondary question, how does writing work for you?
Tags: being productive, contemplation, lilly, writing
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  • 17 comments

jerusha

October 7 2008, 21:49:38 UTC 8 years ago

Pictures of Siamese kittens? (Warning: near-toxic levels of cute.)

seanan_mcguire

October 7 2008, 21:52:04 UTC 8 years ago

SQUEE!

And totally kittens. I'm actually talking to Lilly's breeder, since that would mean more cats of the same totally awesome stock, but there are a few more breeders I'm giving serious consideration to.

Having a deeply obscure breed of cat that everyone thinks is dirt-common is sometimes infuriating.

starletfallen

October 8 2008, 02:46:07 UTC 8 years ago

...people think Siamese are common? O.o

seanan_mcguire

October 8 2008, 04:05:07 UTC 8 years ago

Compared to many breeds of cat, they actually are. It's just that Lilly (and Leela before her, and my next Siamese, and so forth) are what's called 'Classic Siamese.' They're purebred, but they're not the scary art deco cats (Modern Siamese), or the rounded cats that originally came over (Applehead or Traditional Siamese).

Of the three types, Classic Siamese have the fewest currently active breeders, and many of them only have Classics so they can pawn off their overly-typey Traditionals.

starletfallen

October 8 2008, 04:07:12 UTC 8 years ago

Aaah. *peers* My old ophthalmologist had a Classic Siamese. She was gorgeous. Named Crystal. She used to sit on my lap during eye exams. ^^

Deleted comment

seanan_mcguire

October 8 2008, 01:44:05 UTC 8 years ago

But hey, at least it means you procrastinate with style and grace.

yolandasfetsos

October 7 2008, 23:33:07 UTC 8 years ago

Writing works (best) for me when I'm totally alone. I pick up my laptop, head into the living room, sit on my corner of the couch and get typing. Of course, my little kitty, Loki, likes to be nearby too. And I love that. He's my writing companion.

Mostly I write while my daughter's at school and hubby's at work, or after she's gone to bed. That's when my brain works best, when I'm all alone with Loki, and have hardly any distractions. :D

seanan_mcguire

October 8 2008, 01:44:53 UTC 8 years ago

Leela -- my Siamese before Lilly -- used to try to 'help' me type. Her 'help' was counter-productive, as I'm sure you can imagine.

I can totally see why you'd develop a solo-writing habit, given the givens.

talithakalago

October 7 2008, 23:59:20 UTC 8 years ago

I always say writing is all the fun of eating chocolate while someone stabs you in the eye with a fork.

For me, when I'm writing, I'm living the scene. The mental energy it takes to effective halluciante a whole world of smells, sights, sounds and people is tiring though. AWESOME, but tiring.

On a side note, my cat likes sitting on me while I'm at the computer too. However he likes playing with the keyboard, so he's had to be banned from writing time.

seanan_mcguire

October 8 2008, 01:45:10 UTC 8 years ago

That is the best comparison ever.

lady_ravenlocke

October 8 2008, 00:52:20 UTC 8 years ago

I tend to work in rabid bursts, with lots of time in between those bursts for lots of thinking. When I'm on a roll, though, I can get a lot done, to the point my roommate has actually been able to use my typing as enough white noise to get to sleep.

I can't work in a vacuum, though, like some people have suggested to me over time. I like to have my roomie nearby, since he's literally a walking encyclopedia. I can ask him quick, obscure questions, normally for stuff I don't want to stop writing to go look up (example: is something used in the water of sensory dep tanks to help the subject float? Answer: Yeah, it's Epsom Salt, or Magnesium Sulfate).

Now, if I can just get to the point I can start finishing things. LOL

seanan_mcguire

October 8 2008, 01:45:25 UTC 8 years ago

Hey, it's a slow process, but you'll get there!

dormouse_in_tea

October 8 2008, 01:39:27 UTC 8 years ago

I'm sorry to hear about Nyssa. I hope she eases out gently.

seanan_mcguire

October 8 2008, 01:46:02 UTC 8 years ago

She's taking it easy; she just gets a little flatter (and more disturbingly skeletal) every day. She's a good girl, and as long as she doesn't hurt, I'll keep letting her get infinitely old.

starletfallen

October 8 2008, 02:45:12 UTC 8 years ago

How DO I write? Well... to be honest, I write better in spurts. I've got a full-screen program that is green Courier New text on a black background. It doesn't have any formatting options or anything. But it's full-screen. I put on a playlist carefully selected to not have any songs I'll want to skip (or sometimes, for short stories or certain chapters, a single song), I tell my IM buddies I'm going to write, I put my headphones on, and I just GO for twenty or thirty minutes. Take a half hour break then (if I don't get distracted) go back to writing for another twenty or thirty.

Of course, this is if I write at ALL, and this is the writing habit of someone who has yet to even get halfway through a novel, but STILL.

mirrorred_star

October 8 2008, 05:51:08 UTC 8 years ago

Me? Writing? Not very well right now... I'm in an in-between, and I don't know what I'm doooooing.... when it is working, it works best as 'at 6:30pm, I'm gonna sit down and type wordy-things in one of my story-files for an hour or two.' Which works... when I'm not overly distracted by this odd creature known as the intertubes :D