I've been doing quite a bit of writing lately, some of it quite good, but none of it intended for pay or for publication. While the writing I'm doing benefits me in a non-financial way, it is a bit frustrating to realize that it's taking time away from my for-pay production.
Or is it? Would I really be working on for-pay/for-publication work if I stopped the other writing I'm doing? Or might I just be staring at the wall or the television screen?
One of the odd things about writing--especially difficult for the non-writers around us to understand--is that it is difficult to know when we're working and when we aren't. Either way, we may be sitting in front of a keyboard, or staring blankly into space, or on a long walk around the neighborhood as we think.
4 comments:
Hey Michael,
Sometimes those "side" project simply serve to recharge the creative batteries. Or so I tell myself. :)
Stephen
This also begs the question--if it isn't for pay or publication, then why are you doing it? For what purpose?
Kevin
(rewritten to catch typos)
I think, Kevin, that writing is how I best express myself and so I use my "professional" writing skills to help me resolve "personal" matters. There is a possibility that some of the things I've written lately might be worked into a piece that gets published, but the original intent isn't publication. And, in a way, it does something similar to what Stephen suggests. While this writing doesn't recharge my batteries, it does keep my fingers on the keyboard and my mind limber. When I'm ready to write for publication, I won't need to restart a rusty engine.
(And today I had ideas for five new short stories and wrote the opening paragraphs for each of them.)
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