Enormous Frustrations and No Such Thing as the Real World
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Sometimes writing is just so hard. This morning I would almost say it's too hard. The only hours I have to give to it are the hours I should be sleeping. I force myself to my desk in the 3 AM dark, and nothing works, the rhythms are off, I can't get my footing, I ask myself, Have you not worked this very page at least four dozen times before? Should you not already hear its music? Don't you get it? Can't you? What is it going to take? I read a page or two from a novel I love, the work of another author who has what I don't feel I've got, and I say to myself: Well. That is writing.
Frustrated, I turned to my blogging friends for succor and discover this—a review of No Such Thing as the Real World, the HarperTeen collection to which I contributed. I am no less frustrated with my writing self today. But thank you, My Friend Amy, for reminding me that sometimes the stories are within reach. Thank you so much.
6 comments:
I'm sure it will come to you if you give it time.
It's within you Beth. It will surface. I know that it must be frustrating. I sometimes find the taunting of the blinking cursor on the blank page so aggravating. I have to step away. One time, I found myself writing on a napkin. It worked better for me than the laptop screen at that moment. Who can figure?
I once read a book where the main character's mom let him smash plates in the basement when he was frustrated. I don't remember anything else about the book, whether I liked it or not, I just remember thinking, wouldn't it be wonderful to have a room to smash plates in? Good luck with your writing and I hope your frustration eases.
I was up at 4am writing today, too! But I decided to just write, no matter how bad it was, so that I could have the thoughts down, then go back and fix them later. I'm still clinging to the hope that I can fix them :)
I'm awed that you could be awake to write at 3:00 am, whether you got anything accomplished or not. And that's great about the anthology.
While I tried to write a blog post today, I thought, "How does Beth do such incredible work, writing her books and posts during normal sleeping hours and working all the rest of the day on something else entirely?"
I still wonder that, but this post makes it more real. You do and you keep doing it, rain or snow.
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