Saturday, December 05, 2009

sympathy for the writer

I had a very stressful day, so I just sat and watched a movie to bring myself down to earth. I watched The Lake House (with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves).   The trouble is, all through the movie I kept thinking about how confusing the story must have been to write. It involves two people corresponding - and falling in love - while they are living two years apart. My mind hurts, and I'm wondering whether I'll ever be able to read a story or watch a movie without analyzing it. (I confess I find the idea of  time travel mind-boggling. However, I still love the movie. I'm just glad I didn't have to write it.)

Earlier today, I was reading my new book about writer's block, and I came to the part about how if you're spending all your time reading about writer's block, you're probably not writing, and maybe you should stop reading and start writing. Duh. It was about that time that I realized that all the books I've read about writing really say the same thing - just write. So I put down the book, pulled out my purse-sized notebook, and wrote for half an hour (at Starbucks) before I went to work.  I could save a lot of time and money by writing JUST SIT DOWN AND WRITE on an index card and pulling it out whenever I get the urge to buy a book about writing. I think I'll do that. I also think I'll pop over to Starbucks again tomorrow morning before work. I seem to do well, writing in coffee houses. There's background noise, but  none of it concerns me, and that allows me to wander off into whatever world I'm trying to inhabit at the time.

Where do you write? At home? In coffee shops? At the library? Do you need silence? Noise? Music?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Index card idea is good!

Reya Mellicker said...

I think you must be writing a book about time travel sometime in the future, which is why the analysis of the Lake House was so compelling.

Don't listen to me, Sandra. I'm just playing with you!

Totalfeckineejit said...

Throw the books out, the only thing they help with is the author's bank balance.Can't believe you wrote 50,000 words,what are they like? Cafe writing is cool.I sometimes write outside but usually just a few notes to take home.

Sara Diana said...

In my younger days I used to write alot, especially short stories and poems. Life has taken over these last 25 years but reading your blog is starting to get the old cogs turning again.

I used to write my poetry anywhere on anything, whatever I had to hand.

RLM Cooper said...

I'm one of those people who need silence. I write here at my computer. Sometimes I scribble notes on a spiral-bound notebook in my bedside table. But my writing is done at the computer.

Time-travel stories also drive me crazy. Since I know they can't possibly happen, it stretches the realist in me (that's 99.999% of me) too thin. Dead is dead. And you don't get the opportunity to go back and change it.

Still... like you, I did enjoy the film (somewhat). I've liked other Sandra Bullock films much better, however.

Unknown said...

I write wherever the moods strikes me. I am not a writer, really, but once in a while something pops out of my head!!

I loved that movie by the way.

T. said...

I envy your ability to write in a coffee shop -- I'm chained to the hearth and home for writing. It's absolutely necessary for me to be in my own environment. (Lots of hair-pulling, so-to-speak.) And it's for that reason I don't ever apply for writer's residencies, although I love to travel. I suppose we all have our idiosyncrasies!

Sandra Leigh said...

Good evening, everyone. I'm sorry not to have responded earlier, but today turned into a twelve-hour work day, and then I went to dinner at the pub.

John, I agree. First, though, I have to read all the books I have.

Reya, please don't make me write that book, I beg you. ;>)

TFE, I don't know what they're like. I've only printed part of the work -- holding off until I have a few clear days -- plus I don't really want to look back until I get to the end of the story. I'll tell you next summer, I think!

Sara, every time I clean out my purse I find poems and bits of prose written on everything from napkins to take-out menus.

Angel May, I know you wouldn't be happy working in a coffee shop. I like the background noise, up to a point. If the coffee machine gets really loud, it annoys me, but I like being able to pick up snatches of conversation from the surrounding tables.

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