‘Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end,IIi after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy’
-The Oddesy Translated by Robert Fitzgerald (1961)
There is something beautiful about the opening of the Illiad and the Oddessy. Where homer opens with a prayer to the muses for guidance in telling his story. He asks the muse to sing and he asks for the story he is about to tell specifically. What strikes me is he is asking as he is about to start the work. He has sat down and gathered his audience and is about to tell his tail. What is important is as he invokes the muse is he already has his ass in the chair and is ready to work. the prayer is a small ritual to set up his mindset.
Most people think artists sit around waiting for inspiration to strike. Those writers who only write when the mood takes them. Or painters only paint when the light is just right. Those are the people who never write or paint and to an extent that was me. Now I am focusing on the things that I want to get done. I want to lose weight so I am tracking what I eat and the exercise I do. I want to write a book. So I am writing a little bit every day.
For writing, I have a small ritual. especially on weekdays. I write after breakfast. I put my plate aside pick up my little laptop open Scrivner and read the last line. If that doesn’t orientate me in the scene then i read the last paragraph. By that time usually know where I am and then I write. My target 500 words in half an hour. Sometimes I manage more. I do this while sitting on the couch with my dog link curled up beside me.
weekends are different .they are more chaotic. we go out to get breakfast or have something o do. its later in the day while my partner watches tv I retire to another room to write. it is harder to work at the weekend when a routine is a lot more fluid and I recognise it’s easier to let things go. Also, weekends are my time to recover from the work week. Being tired slows down my writing on the weekends and makes it more difficult not only to start but also to concentrate. hitting the word count proves challenging.
Overcoming these obstacles
The routine and the ritual is helpful. it makes writing automatic. I don’t think that is the only thing that keeps me writing. the other thing that is helping me is thebullet journal. I am not one to spend a lot of time organising but I usually need some kind of accountability to keep me going. For writing, I used to use the magic spreadsheet but now the bullet journal is letting me track many things.
When I have something I want to track for example my daily word count. or a months habit that I am trying to develop I put it into my month’s organiser beside my goals for the month. Over the last few months, I put a goal of 10,000 words a month. T his month I decided to up it 12,000 but that is because I hit 10,000 without much of a problem. The journal also keeps track of yoga workouts and my weight as I get fit again post-cancer.
This is working for me. I recognise that writing a book is not a sprint, and more in some ways than a marathon. It is a journey or a quest (You thought I was going to say oddesy). Writing a book takes time and energy. You end up alone crying over the wasted effort or you can end up going in circles. or give up until something kicks your ass into writing again. Then you keep kicking your ass every day until your work is done. You have to sit down and write as if it was a daily ritual. in order to create something, you want to see in the world.
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Overcoming these obstacles
The routine and the ritual is helpful. it makes writing automatic. I don’t think that is the only thing that keeps me writing. the other thing that is helping me is the bullet journal. I am not one to spend a lot of time organising but I usually need some kind of accountability to keep me going. For writing, I used to use the magic spreadsheet but now the bullet journal is letting me track many things.