On Writing

The only way to write is to live in it (the writing).

Or maybe more correctly: The only way I can write is to live in it.

This wouldn't have been my favorite way of phrasing it, but when I woke up this morning after 3 hours' sleep with this phrase going through my head, it seemed only fair to write it down.

I finally finished a big project that's been hanging over my head for too long, and although I talked to my family this past week, I didn't want to do anything else until I'd finished. Once you're past the stage of agonizing procrastination, writer's block, and the boredom of sitting in front of a screen with nothing to say, you don't want to risk all that by doing something crazy like, say, eating or letting the cat in when he's scratching the screen on the window to shreds. You just want to write.

Now, I realize that this is not the way that professional writers do it, and it isn't the Boice Way. This is the way of the Great Satan that Boice warns against, in fact. I *want* to do the "write a little every day" thing, but that's a kind of multitasking. I haven't yet been able to turn my brain on and off that way ("10:14--continue to work on manuscript; 10:15: stop writing and prepare class"). I'll keep trying, but for now?

It's all there in the first line.