Given that since I’m self-employed, weekends can technically happen whenever I like; there’s nothing to stop me from taking Wednesday and Thursday off, for example, then working the actual weekend. But I still quite enjoy the quietness of Sundays.
Oh wait there is a thing to stop me and it’s called money. I work during the weekend too!
Anyway, today I was feeling that feeling that’s really hard to describe except by writing ‘eugh’ or ‘bleh’, but whatever it is I was experiencing it this evening so I buried myself in Pride and Prejudice with a mug of hot chocolate and briefly pretended I was the main character in a bad romantic comedy. To be totally honest part of me is still pretending a little bit… Reading a really compelling book always makes me feel a million times better, like a really good sleep.
I was about to say that reading decent work also makes my writing better but I just read all that back and I think it might take a couple more literary masterpieces to improve my conviction that I should type using as few commas as possible. See.
But I have remembered that if I want to write well then I need to read well and have resolved to get down to my library and possibly actually read The Fault in Our Stars. Or Hitchhiker’s Guide. Or The Fellowship of the Ring. Or something that isn’t my Tumblr dashboard.
Maybe I just really need to spend less time on the same five websites, most of which are full of the same type of ‘WE WILL TALK AND YOU WILL LISTEN BECAUSE WE ARE THE ONES TALKING’ people. You know the type; they think that because they’ve carved out a cute little corner of the Internet, they deserve to be listened to and respected in every other corner of the Internet.
Or maybe I ought to just work out a better work/play routine than the one I currently have. Due to its inherent lack of structure and reliance on social media it often sees me in ‘work mode’ in inappropriate places, like during films or on trips to London, but then during the day (after a night of dodgy sleep because have I got that copywriting email begrudging me £2.50 yet?) I’m exhausted and slump on the sofa watching awful adverts with some TV sandwiched between.
Right, I’m off to work on Jacki’s MCR poem to clean my room to have a bath. Sod it I might go back to Lydia’s elopement with Wickham.
Francesca's Thoughts 
READ THE FAULT IN OUR STARS IMMEDIATELY
even before you have a bath, clean room, write poetry or read anything else.
hopefully my shouty caps don’t put me in the category of “I’m talking, you will listen” people!
Yes, structure – it’s a good thing when self-employed. It’s a good thing at any time … but that’s maybe because I’m anally retentive about organising things. The alphabet wasn’t just designed so that we could communicate – it’s also very handy for put things in a sensible order … like books (author surname), DVDs (title, excluding “the” and “a” at the start), CDs (band name but complicated).
But back to the matter at hand … schedule specific time to do certain jobs as it’s very easy to spend a day procrastinating on the same few social media sites and fan forums. it’s harder though if you’re trying to write creatively as sometimes you know you have to write but don’t feel inspired. I don’t know – it’s over a year since I attempted “creative” writing, and short of getting occasionally ranty elsewhere, this is about the only place I ever string more than two sentences together.
The problem with reading well established and great literature is that much of it was written at a time when grammatical rules were observed and spoken language was possibly less colloquial. Were we to write as we speak now (and we probably do!) – there are far more comma’s required, what with all the ‘like’, ‘erm’. ‘I mean’ utterances that punctuate daily conversations. I find it especially difficult when trying to write dialogue – and writing what a character is thinking is even more of a minefield.
Maybe have an ideas book to use when travelling about etc but give yourself set times to do proper work? But maybe have a holiday first just to set yourself up with a rested brain … then there’s xmas/new year, valentines day, easter … before you know it, it will be summer again!
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I am definitely going to take ‘TFioS’ away with me if nothing else, haha.
Took your advice and am currently on my scheduled ‘blog comment answering’ time. I also had ‘dog snuggle time’ today, as well as ‘Doomsday Book’, ‘commission’, ‘deviantART submission’ and ‘copywriting’ time.
Kind of ready for a nap.
Regarding creative writing on-demand, I’ve found that the more I work at writing when I don’t ‘feel like it’, the better I get and the easier it is to get into the flow of things without flashes of inspiration. I do, however, rely hugely on a couple of notebooks and the Pages app on my iPad for quick notes. In terms of writing style, I reckon that’s just practise too. Writing speech is becoming easier the more I do it and, hopefully, so will writing coherently on here (god knows I practise that enough!).
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