Monday 9 January 2012

Lazybones!

Apologies for having posted nothing since December. Mea culpa! I had no work at all for the entire month and got into sloth mode, but all that has changed now as more editing jobs have come in, which means postponing yet again the moment when I start work on another book. One day...

... Or maybe not. The editor of a magazine I used to freelance for, who was also father of five, trained himself to get up at 4 am every morning to work on his novel before leaving for the office. It took such a toll on him that one night he sleepwalked right out of the first floor bedroom window and broke his back. He made a good recovery, but has since been made redundant and I believe he is now freelancing and still writing books.

So what is my excuse? I don't have five children, only one slightly disabled Mr Grumpy and a fat old cat. But when you have stared at the screen for five hours editing and annotating 50 page sof someone else's writing, the last thing you feel like is spending another couple of hours writing your own. Working on other people's material numbs my own creative senses. Like an actor, I get thoroughly absorbed in another's style and plot, to the extent that I can't switch back to my own in the blink of an eye.

Right now, I'm off to edit another five pages while Mr G is watching The Gadget Show. As for my book, I think I shall have to book a longish holiday in a quiet cottage with the sea lapping gently outside the window and a G&T being gently lapped by my tongue!




4 comments:

Teresa Ashby said...

Poor guy - pushed himself beyond the limit by the sound of it. I've tried the getting up earlier thing, but I can't sustain it.
It must be extremely difficult to write something of your own when you've been editing all day.
That quiet cottage by the sea sounds perfect x

Perovskia said...

Hmm.. how about getting an iPad (or some suitable facsimile). That way you can go curl up somewhere (warm!) in the house and you're not sitting in front of the computer, per se. Know what I mean? Just an idea...

hydra said...

Yes, it might be an idea, Pero!

Jackie Sayle said...

I know what you mean about getting absorbed in another person's style if you try to write when you're reading something. I know when I was reading Sue Limb's Dulcie Domum series (Bad Housekeeping etc.) everything I wrote, including letters, came out in that style.