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
  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    switch
    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    Help
  • 17 comments

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.