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This is a blog about my obsessions, whatever they may be.

January 08, 2010

Anxiety

1.

My cousin did a tarot reading for me.

The sum total was that I should live in the moment more, and worry about the future less.

2.

My doctor thinks the nausea I’ve been living with for months now is more stress-induced than anything else. He also said some other things that I refuse to dignify by mentioning them here.

I’m not surprised that he thinks stress is a big part of the problem. But to extrapolate from one to infinity…As a scientist, I think he needs to re-learn the scientific method. And some basic statistics.

But he also said that I should be kinder to myself, and that is almost certainly true.

3.

The first leads to the second, which leads to this: I know of quite a few writers who sit down each morning, and the first thing they do is churn out three pages. Of something. Whatever they want to write or have to say. It doesn’t matter, so long it’s three pages.

A big part of why I haven’t wanted to try this is that I’m not a morning person. It’s just really hard to get up early for anything, much less write three pages that aren’t Work.

But maybe it’ll help me empty my mind of all the detritus, something I’ve found to be practically impossible all my life.

5 comments:

  1. You should definitely be taking better care!

    Mornings bite - but writing can be good therapy.
    I think I am going to steal that idea!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Huh.

    First comment on my shiny new blog (not so shiny, but the truth is that I'm using Blogger rather than my preferred WordPress because I really really love this skin) and it doesn't tell me!!

    I do take good care. At least, I think I do. It really ticks me off that he thinks I don't. LOL. (Yes, I have issues. LOL.)

    I'm starting in February. Wanna be my accountability partner?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can't write fiction in the morning. Emails, tweets, blog posts: all good to go in the morning. (And often bleeding well into the rest of the day, alas!)

    So the earliest I start writing is 4 or 5 in the afternoon, and even that feels sluggish. But if I start at 9 p.m. or later -- wow! I'm churning it out. This makes no sense to my rational brain, but maybe that's the point -- later in the day, my rational brain shuts up shop and my creative brain takes over.

    Or not - it's 10:15 a.m. here, so my creative brain is still sleeping and can't be roused for comment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I normally start writing fiction later in the day, and tend to find that I get into the zone only after it gets dark (this is why I have to write a vampire novel some day).

    Emails...any time. Same with tweets. Blog posts...it depends. I've been blogging on and off for at least 5 years now.

    But I'm starting to think that it's the same with the 3 pages in the morning. As you go through the day, you empty out the detritus in your head and therefore you write best at night.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Night is much better IMO

    I do not function in the mornings, not tweets or emails generally.. LOL

    ReplyDelete