Amazon.com Widgets
---

A Terrible Week of Writing · 26 April 2014


This work is in the public domain.


I had a terrible week of writing. Oh I wrote. I just did not write anything worthwhile. Not that I think I write anything worthwhile, but this week really was different.


I am not sure exactly what real writers do when they get stuck in a rut. I suppose they let discipline carry the day and just write. They pull something together even if it is not their best work. They meet their deadlines and they move on. At least that is what I would do if I was a real writer.


It is like that in any profession really. Whatever we do, if we have enough discipline, we can get the job done. And when the deadline is looming, we often get our best work done. Like when kids wait until the last minute to do essays. (I did that all the time when I had essays due in school.) There are times when we just throw stuff together and call it good. Then, the boss (or teacher) tells us to do it again. But there are those rare occasions when what we just throw together at the last minute ends up being brilliant. Or at least passable.


These moments of brilliance do not come about just by happenstance. They come about because we have the discipline and experience to pull it off. Somehow, we dig deep and find that bit of inspiration in those final minutes before press time. Or at least it seems like inspiration. In reality, it is more like the years of perspiration and training have built up the mind and muscles to help us get over that hump. For me, the words come together not because I am always inspired, but because I write and write and write. There are piles of gibberish and rubbish stuck in my computer that will never see the light of day. And some that might. But the detritus of yesterday forms the basis of the good stuff (or at least palatable) of today.


Or at least that is what I am hoping. I am hoping that the discipline of writing six days a week translates into a few hundred words of palatable or at least passable prose. I am hoping that discipline carries the day when distraction has ruled and inspiration has disappeared.


It really has been a terrible week of writing, but perhaps a few decent words have escaped the abyss to meet the page.

© 2014 Michael T. Miyoshi

Share on facebook
---

Comment

Commenting is closed for this article.