–I just wasted most of my early morning working time sharpening pencils. Well, not really sharpening actual pencils, but doing things that were about as productive in actually getting any words written. I suppose a sharpened pencil might make one more productive. That’s always what the writer thinks when he or she stops writing because come on, a person can’t write with a dull pencil, now can they? Things have to be just right in order for the muse to come sit down beside you, don’t they?
–I actually read about how time can get wasted sharpening pencils in an advice piece once. Obviously a long time ago since most of us fire up the word processor or laptop when we’re writing these days. And even when I didn’t, I had to have my special inkpen. Creative juices won’t flow out of any old inkpen after all. But then I read about sharpening pencils and I recognized myself and how I often delay the hard work of writing by doing other stuff.
–Sometimes the stuff is so much like writing that I fool myself and think I actually did some writing. Or at least something that had to be done. A writer can’t work with all those unsharpened pencils laying around. And in our internet world, that can be the e-mails we need to answer, the facebook page we need to check out, the blog that needs to be posted, the twitter to be tweeted. (I haven’t got into the tweeting yet. I can’t imagine anybody caring what I’m doing on a minute by minute or hour by hour basis. They’d get tired of reading about me sharpening pencils.)
–Anyway, you name it, most of us can find a way to waste a little time or sharpen those pencils. And from my picture above you can see I have some pencils in need of a good sharpener. But first I think I’ll try to sharpen up some of my words and remember that I want to write a book, not just talk about writing a book. And if I’m going to manage that, I’d better sit down and put my fingers on the keyboard and enter my characters’ world to see what’s going on there. Maybe they’ll tweet my imagination and send me some updates.
— So to work for me. Hope you have a great rest of the week. Talk to you Sunday.