Yesterday was a bad writing day.
I got up at the usual time and put in my two and a half hours and hated what I wrote. It wasn’t terrible or disturbing or ungrammatical, it was boring—which is, in my opinion, the worst thing writing can be.
Then I switched to the commercial ad work I do to pay the bills and waded into one of those jobs where the client has thrown her entire desk full of 40-page PowerPoint decks at you and demanded you make sense of it. I wrestled with obscure graphs and marketing speak for another three hours, getting nowhere.
By this time it was nearly noon and I felt like a total waste.
So I finally took a look at the various streams of content I have coming in. And here’s what I discovered: What had been a shitty morning for me was a time of clarity and brilliance for many of my colleagues. Maybe there’s just so much good writing mojo to go around…
First, I read this wonderful blog on writing fiction by Randy Susan Meyers, author of The Murderer’s Daughter. It’s all about barreling through the boring (!) sections of a story. And she deconstructs great works by Larry McMurtry and Rosellen Brown to make her points. Read it for the advice and for the list of great books.
Then I read this very funny piece by Lydia Netzer that prompted me to read an even better post (from way back in April) called 15 Ways to Stay Married for 15 Years. I’m not usually a fan of those Cosmo-style “37 Sexual Positions That Will Blow His Mind” stories. But Netzer has a witty way and her advice is actually damn good. I particularly like “Stop Thinking Temporarily,” though I’m not sure she intended for it to have the double meaning it did…
But the crowning achievement of the day (the week, the month, maybe the year) was Marie Myung-Ok Lee‘s Atlantic essay, What My Son’s Disabilities Taught Me About ‘Having It All’. This piece is a response to a story written by Anne-Marie Slaughter earlier this year. Slaughter was a woman with a fabulous, exciting job, a loving, understanding husband and two healthy, well-adjusted teenagers who whined for more than a dozen magazine pages about how she couldn’t “have it all.” I loathed her article when it came out, though I couldn’t quite articulate why. In a single page, Lee answers the central flaw in Slaughter’s elitist argument. When I read this, I cheered silently. And I suspect there were women all over America doing the same.
Yesterday was a gruesome writing day for me but an excellent reading day. Sometimes, that’s the way it works.
I have a term for situations where I attempt work from many angles, expend energy, get nowhere, and begin hating myself for it. I call it “thrashing,” and the solution, I have finally learned, is to walk away from the task and do something different until clarity returns.
Loved this! Glad to know that I am not the only one who has bad writing days — and I usually opt for reading one of the stacks of books I have waiting for me.
Ann–I am sooo glad I wasn’t the only one who hated that Atlantic Monthly article! Americans in general seem to have a hard time realizing that the world isn’t one unlimited candy store; witness how much difficulty the majority are now having coping in the face of the limitations imposed by the last five years but really were there all along for decades. Just discovered your blog very recently; have a lot more to say, but will write to you personally.
I loved this post. I was also very moved by the post in the Atlantic. Sometimes I can’t believe how over-involved we (and by that I mean “I”) get in the most stupid shit. I am lucky to have three healthy girls, even if I’m only a part-time parent of two. I need to count my blessings.
PS–I also had a shitty writing day, and by that I mean I couldn’t even open the file. I just seems like a herculean task to write a couple of sentences–like it will take everything out of me and then I’ll have no energy left over to obsess about petty shit.
Just had to respond when I saw your name. I’ve just started reading I COULDN’T LOVE YOU MORE. So, it appears to me now that you build your stories from life (three girls, two of whom are part-time.) I’m sure all writers draw from life; they say write what you know.
I’m loving the book so far. I give a book 100 pages before I dump it if it’s not holding my interest. I certainly didn’t have a problem with yours.
Ann–I too am having a horseshit writing day so I loved reading this. Motivation is all around us and if not that–at least, some wonderful, thougth provoking distractions!
xo
Loved this post. I followed all the links and enjoyed each and every one. Thanks for sharing your great reading day.
BTW, I can’t believe you’ve ever had a bad writing day. I just finished THE FOREVER MARRIAGE and ended it wanting more. Fantastic story that was well told.