"I'm just going to write because I can't help it."- Charlotte Brontë


Wednesday, August 28, 2013

I'll Have The Quote She's Having


I must, I must (sorry) pass on certain incredibly wise words from Lauren Beukes that I read in the paper this morning, just as I must, I must haul The Shining Girls from my TBR stack ASAP and read it, because the quote not only mentions three of my top twenty most favourite topics, namely writing, keyboards and cats, but it's the essence of all those secret-to-becoming-both-a-blockbuster-writer-and-a-respected-literary-darling theses on offer everywhere (for quite reasonable prices) reduced to a single tweet:

"Formula for a successful writer: 90 per cent avoiding the internet, 1 per cent writing, 9 per cent persuading the cat to sit somewhere other than ON your keyboard."

:)

This sterling career advice hits close to home. At the moment, Jenny, my usual keyboard cat, and Gus, the cat who would be the new keyboard cat, are tussling for lap supremacy. I'd rather Jenny wins this particular battle. She's smaller, stays still and mostly snoozes while I work - good company without any bother. Augusta is a stocky girl who squirms a lot and wants pats all the time. Jenny knowingly walks around the keyboard while Gus stomps on it. Time will tell how this titanic, feline struggle turns out. I know better than to try and tip the outcome in my favour. Never ever get involved in cat sleeping place politics.

Also, I'm trying to reduce my internet time and convert it to writing time, especially on Wednesdays, when I'm prone to giving in to my sooky  'I'm not well, and this is my R&R day, so it's okay to "rest" in front of the computer and recreationally read all this interesting stuff because, hey, maybe I can turn it into a story, besides which, I'm looking for new writing markets too' excuse. No more. Today I wrote for over 5 hours (alas, my cyborg story is not advancing, but I finished my expanded story that might already have a home - it just needs a polish now), resubbed two rejected stories, read, and reluctantly took care of some official boring stuff of the type that makes the world go round. And, of course, napped.

Although I did inadvertently catch a glimpse of the Miley Cyrus scandal...

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