For the past month I have had family staying from over seas. In the course of that time I have written nothing but I have taken many photos and just enjoyed the writing free zone of my home. Today I am trying to reacquaint myself with the keyboard. Yesterday was a complete flop. I was tired, flitting about from empty room to empty room like a mother bird who had lost her grown chicks and I had no incentive to pick up where I had left off a month ago. My writing kick had feathered off to a far off land and left me behind.
Writing from home usually means I often continue to think about writing from the moment I get up to the moment I go to sleep. I don’t seem to be able to separate work and home time. I have never been that great at it even when I worked outside the home and that was not as a writer. Work always follows me everywhere. Of course when working at home it would help to have a designated writing room set aside. I, however, spend much of my day going from house task to house task intermixed with writing at the kitchen table. It is definitely not the best situation.
I often notice, while out at a cafe or the like, that there seems to be one or more people writing on their lap top. This I cannot fathom. I cannot imagine being able to get anything done in the confines of a little table and chair set in a corner of a busy eatery. I suppose it has great advantages when trying to write a restaurant scene or gathering character traits of eating, drinking and socialising. For me it would be a total distraction. I would probably be taking more notes of the things going on around me than actually writing anything coherent. Besides, my writing for the past two years has been non fiction. It has been a labour of finding fact and truth among misinformation, errors and perceptions.
I have wondered if being part of a writing group would help centre me a little but then I question whether my mind would deviate from its present focus by the comments and or inspiration of others. Many groups write fiction. I prefer non fiction or fact made into a form of fiction. I believe the best stories are based on truth but getting to the truth is not always so easy. There are many versions of the truth in any one situation. It all depends on how one experiences the events. For example, a man and woman speaking loudly in the street will have a different perception to what is going on than a person walking by or the child holding on to the speaking woman’s leg. Each person carries a set of assumptions or beliefs about the other people regardless of whether they are correct or not. We all do it. Our thoughts can be automatic, off the cuff gut reactions triggered by what we initially notice. They may or may not be based on reality.
Saying this I have come no farther in beginning my writing for the day. All I am doing is spilling out words on the page in the hope of getting a spark of motivation to get back into the swing of things and finish my book. So, I suppose the question I’m asking myself is why bother to write this in the first place instead of reading what I have already written for the book as a means of getting back into the stew? The answer is I guess I do need some other stimulation, some human conversation, a kick up the butt or some other form of persuasion now and again to tell me writing for truth, writing with a purpose, has merit. I know it does but it helps to hear it from someone who has been there or can see where I am coming from.
Are there any non fiction writers or any cheerleaders for non fiction out there interested in mutual support?
ljr3 