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Writing Is Work, pt II– Later, that Afternoon…

Like I was saying, Writing is Work. If you’ve got other Work in your life, and you want to be a writer, you have to make time for it. Jay Lake is in good company with Orson Scott Card and Stephen King in suggesting that TV is a needless drain on time. I tend to agree, though with longing looks at Lost, and Battlestar Gallactica. Video games, too, are a distraction.

Get rid of the dross. I keep telling myself this, while I’m playing Halo 2. Yes, Master Chief, you are more important than my novel, you muscular hunk of armored man, you…

Because, really, that’s what you’re saying when you choose what to spend your time on. Wife, Children– pardon me, but I’m going to forsake the few hours of this golden autumnal summer, to descend to the basement and interact with masked men with laser weapons.

Ray Bradbury said:

Video games are a waste of time for men with nothing else to do. Real brains don’t do that. On occasion? Sure. As relaxation? Great. But not full time — And a lot of people are doing that. And while they’re doing that, I’ll go ahead and write another novel. (Salon.com, August 29, 2001)

Ouch. Now, watch, this is going to be THE blog entry that M reads, and will bring up whenever I want to go play some Gamecube. I hope she does. It will serve me right.

In any case– you have to MAKE time to write. The time isn’t just going to form itself out of nothing. You have to hack it out of your day in some cases. In my case, I write in the car, on the way to work, and on the way home from work. Since I slug, this is a convenient way for me to get a good 2-3 hours in every day. It also saves my family life. When I write during my commute time, I’m less likely to whine about how they’re repressing my talents at home. Because I, barbarian that I am, have reached out with my beefy hands, grasped the opportunity in front of my face, and smashed it into a manuscript with my head.

:growl: Grignr would be proud.