24/03/2011

Another cure for writer's block

Deadlines. So says Laura Miller in her recent article posted at Salon. We knew it all along, right? If  you have to, you will. So, I have given myself 10 minutes to write this post. Damn. I just wasted about three of those minutes fiddling around finding albums to copy to my player and several more re-reading Miller's article. I am down to one minute. ONE MINUTE. Deadlines and decoy projects.
That's what every blocked writer really needs: something more significant they should be doing instead, an earth-shaking, life-changing project you're stealing time from to work on this little novel. Or the great novel you ought to be drafting while you knock off your memoir just for fun. Granted, inventing such a decoy project and convincing yourself that you may actually get around to it someday requires a bold and sustained act of imagination. But that's what writers do, isn't it -- make stuff up?

My "decoy project": is blogging. How fucked is that?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about if my decoy project is "life?" hmm...

someone said...

pretty fucked. I don't have to tell you how many times I've written precisely the same post using more time and more words.

and to what end?

I'm glad we blog. It's a safe vent, if there is such a thing.

my decoy? the dishes.

asha said...

Hey Anonymous: Heavy, man.

someone: I'll be in Portland next week. Arriving Wed. We can be each others decoy.

someone said...

call when you get here. I'll be the one dressed as a mallard.

Roy said...

You guys quack me up.