Many thanks for this piece - hope it didn’t distract too much from the other goodies that help pay the bills.
I’m working from home a lot and found the internal monologue sometimes gets externalised. It started out as saying something to the dog… It can depend on whether it’s a good or a bad day.
Isn’t there a saying - talking to yourself isn’t a sign of madness, it’s answering yourself back.
JB, thanks very much for the extended response to my question. I’m impressed by your freebooter spirit. As a mostly lifetime public servant, I am clearly not cut from the same cloth.
I would have enjoyed being employed by the Courier-Mail back in your early adult writer era, which was back in the glory days of newspapers before google ate their lunch. I remember being at the bar with a friend of mine, who was a senior writer with the C-M, who said he was not going to be around for 10 days because he was off on a 10 day free skiing trip to California.
I said to him, you mean to say, you are on a free 10 day California skiing trip and you won’t have to put your hand in your pocket once, and all you have to do is write an article about the ski resort when you get back?
Yes, he said.
I made various shocked murmurs that I thought this was the greatest lurk I’d ever heard of.
He was a little shocked and embarrassed by my response. A couple of days later he got back to me and said, he’d checked and there were currently 15 C-M employees on similar overseas junkets.
I am recalling something Anne Lamott said about why people write. It went along the lines of if there is something else you’d rather be doing then why aren’t you doing it?
Sometimes when you're playing sport, even if you're not very good, you hit that one shot, and it comes off the bat so perfectly you know that no one has ever hit a shot any better than that, no matter how good they were. Every once in a while I get that feeling when I write. One line or one idea, it's all I could ever want.
Many thanks for this piece - hope it didn’t distract too much from the other goodies that help pay the bills.
I’m working from home a lot and found the internal monologue sometimes gets externalised. It started out as saying something to the dog… It can depend on whether it’s a good or a bad day.
Isn’t there a saying - talking to yourself isn’t a sign of madness, it’s answering yourself back.
JB, thanks very much for the extended response to my question. I’m impressed by your freebooter spirit. As a mostly lifetime public servant, I am clearly not cut from the same cloth.
I would have enjoyed being employed by the Courier-Mail back in your early adult writer era, which was back in the glory days of newspapers before google ate their lunch. I remember being at the bar with a friend of mine, who was a senior writer with the C-M, who said he was not going to be around for 10 days because he was off on a 10 day free skiing trip to California.
I said to him, you mean to say, you are on a free 10 day California skiing trip and you won’t have to put your hand in your pocket once, and all you have to do is write an article about the ski resort when you get back?
Yes, he said.
I made various shocked murmurs that I thought this was the greatest lurk I’d ever heard of.
He was a little shocked and embarrassed by my response. A couple of days later he got back to me and said, he’d checked and there were currently 15 C-M employees on similar overseas junkets.
Something I say to myself every now and then- “One of life’s simple pleasures is just leaning back and reading your own writing.”
I love it and eagerly await the whole book. But, wouldn’t withers fall upon him like birds (plural) of prey?
Yeah, what you're reading is raw, first draft.
I am recalling something Anne Lamott said about why people write. It went along the lines of if there is something else you’d rather be doing then why aren’t you doing it?
Nice man, nice. Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad I’m not the only one that talks to myself when I write stuff. Problem is when I am writing on the bus…
Good stuff, can’t wait to see the whole Elvis chapter.
Self satisfaction with your professional output is the best dopamine around. It’s one of the few things I miss in my extremely gratified retirement.
John,
Most writers illuminate us about their 'how' to write, but rarely expose the 'why'.
That's where the real good stuff lurks.
What's more, you've explained how your motivations have changed over the years.
Thankyou.
As someone getting near the end of a very-long-gestated "1st draft", its wonderful to read of writing realities from one of the greats.
"Pre-shaved pussy"....I'm sure there is a short story behind that line somewhere!
Sometimes when you're playing sport, even if you're not very good, you hit that one shot, and it comes off the bat so perfectly you know that no one has ever hit a shot any better than that, no matter how good they were. Every once in a while I get that feeling when I write. One line or one idea, it's all I could ever want.