People get confused when I tell them that writing makes me tired. And it does. After writing any sort of narrative(aka school essays don't count) for a long time, my head spins and I get really cranky.
It was hard to explain why writing had that effect on me. Why does something that I love drain me so much?
Then I saw this passage by Roald Dahl in his memoir Boy, and I thought it was summed up perfectly:
"The life of a writer is absolute hell compared with the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him. If he is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.
Two hours of writing fiction leaves this particular writer absolutely drained. For those two hours he has been miles away, he has been somewhere else, in a different place with totally different people, and the effort of swimming back into normal surroundings is very great. It is almost a shock The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze.....A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I'm sure, is why he does it."
It was hard to explain why writing had that effect on me. Why does something that I love drain me so much?
Then I saw this passage by Roald Dahl in his memoir Boy, and I thought it was summed up perfectly:
"The life of a writer is absolute hell compared with the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him. If he is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.
Two hours of writing fiction leaves this particular writer absolutely drained. For those two hours he has been miles away, he has been somewhere else, in a different place with totally different people, and the effort of swimming back into normal surroundings is very great. It is almost a shock The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze.....A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I'm sure, is why he does it."
That is so true! I'm writing a novel for my english program this year, and I know how it can really knock you out.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. I succumbed to that fear this November, when I totally bombed NaNo. I got a day's worth of words in, then freaked out (with good reason I might add)and couldn't write, much less finish! ah well. I MIGHT try the July Camp NaNo.
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