I’ve had a really difficult time recently sticking to a writing schedule. Part of that is due to job hunting. To job hunt effectively, a person really has to spend time at it. Part of it is due to school. Being the nerd I proudly admit to being, I insist on reading through all my textbooks, taking notes on them and writing up vocabulary lists from each chapter before classes ever start, and that takes up a lot of time as well. Part of it is that I have had houseguests off and on (mostly on) since the beginning of September. I write best in silence. I despise noise, and houseguests are rarely quiet (to my needs) even when they try their best to be quiet. They watch movies or listen to music (something I almost never do) or just move around. Normal activities, but when a person is used to living alone and spending most of their time in complete silence, it’s noisy.
But I can’t really get rid of the houseguests, even though I desperately want privacy so I can write. My original guests were a friend, his cousin and his cousin’s girlfriend. They were through out of their aunt’s house with no notice and no where to stay. So they stayed and got jobs (and drove me out of my mind J ). My friend left at the beginning of November, and the other two went back home to California the first week of December. For a month I had my apartment back to myself and writing happened. I revised a couple of more chapters on my YA #1and wrote outlines for my YA #3 and it’s sequels (yes, that one is meant to be part of a series). Then last week I get a call from another friend. His buddy has been thrown out of his house and my friend’s family won’t let the boy stay there. It’s below freezing out, the weatherman is calling for snow, and the boy is only 16. I truly don’t think that anyone with a conscience could refuse to help. So long story made short, I once again have a houseguest.
So writing has pretty much come to a standstill again. School stuff is completely finished, I am still job hunting, but I am itching to write. Literally. It’s like this scratching inside my brain of ideas trying to get out and into the computer. But I just can’t do it. Writing does not happen for me with people around.
To make matters worse, as soon as this boy is gone (he leaves on the 28th to another place) the girl who went home to CA is coming back. Her mother refuses to allow her to stay there since she is pregnant. She has nowhere to stay here in Maryland, so it looks like I’ll only have a week between my two houseguests. I’m going to have to write nonstop that entire week to get any significant work done next month. Either that or learn how to deal with noise, but seeing as I’ve been this way since I was young, I don’t see it changing any time soon.
Are there any situations in which you find it impossible to write, no matter how many ideas are clamoring in your brain?
2 comments:
The first two "house guest" moments, you were being really kind and a good friend. But the third one -- the pregnant girl -- I think you have to put your foot down at some point. It's a sad situation, but you're not her mother.
Anyway, I don't have this problem with noise. Being married, someone's always in the house with me. :) I just do what Stephen King suggests: find a corner in another room -- preferably one with bare walls and no windows -- close the door behind you, and just write like as if you're in a cave. A entire traveling circus troupe can march by that door, but inside is your sanctuary, oblvious to all things but the screen in front of you.
That's how I write. My wife is in the very next room watching bad, loud tv. But once I close that door, I'm off in my own la-la land of writing. 2 hours later, I've done my deed for the day and can now have permission to rejoin the rest of society -- i.e., snuggle up to Lisa and watch some bad tv, too! :)
You are so lucky that you can do that, David. I've been this way since I was a kid - loud noises of any kind distract me until I can't focus on anything. I've tried many ways to adjust and inure myself to noise, but it doesn't work at all.
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