surreptitious Microserfs reference

The other day one of my favorite English teacher-poet-coworkers and I were having a conversation about how Kafka wrote The Judgement in one long, intense session. I am, in fact, fascinated by the work habits of writers. For example, Hemingway started his work early every morning, standing up at a typewriter.

It takes a special discipline to direct yourself to write regularly everyday. I had no problem with it when it was my job, and I had publication deadlines. On my own, however, I could do 36 loads of laundry and dishes before I forced myself to write a sentence.

But this conversation about Kafka kind of inspired me to try such an intense session, to see what would bleed out onto the screen. Masterpieces happen, right? I could have the occassional intensive creative days/weekends when I shut myself up in my office, only coming out for coffee refills and bathroom breaks, while Nick pushes my food under the door. Why not? My slacker job has so many days-off built in. At worst, I would have a nervous breakdown from the intensity. But that's really just something else to write about.

Comments

  1. I could never lock myself up in a room and write all day. I would stress out and go crazy. But I'm not a writer. But I could play music all day long. I guess it's all in what you like to do. This does give me an idea though. I would like to just type random thoughts for maybe an hour, then post it on my blog. But if I'm going to be typing anything for an hour, I really should be working on my National Boards. Don't let me forget about this. Maybe I could do it in the Summer when I don't have much else to worry about.

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  2. stream of consciousness blogging! that sounds fun.

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  3. It's this type of thing that NaNoWriMo is all about. I did it this past year for the first time ever and it completely opened me up. Granted, I'm not necessarily writing the most useful crap, but it's all about the practice. And really, I think the "event" of NaNo is very much about secretly giving ourselves permission to set everything else aside and only focus on the writing, letting everything else slip off and go undone for a while.

    -ilex/holly

    ps - please keep linking these on your FB or LJ so that there's an obvious reminder there that you've updated! I love reading your blogs wherever they are.

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  4. Holly -- I agree about nano. I was proud of you for pushing through it this year! That's a long time to hold up such intensity.

    You know, Monday is a holiday and I was thinking it might be a good time to try one of these intense seclusions.

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