ok so there’s nothing remotely Zen about me. I drink (wine and coffee and even sometimes *gasp* diet coke), I got to bed late, I watch TV, I pretend I do yoga but only actually do it about once a month….ok maybe every six weeks, and I enjoy reading novels so pulpy they could bulk out juice, BUT I also juggle books.
Not the throw them in the air and catch them kind of juggling but the writing two books at once and editing another kind of juggling.
This, I am discovering is perhaps not the best plan in the universe. It leads to non- Zen type behaviour – hence the drinking and minus yoga points.
To juggle books it is essential you have deadlines breathing at you noisily from the corner like overweight dragons on meth and a slightly crazed stare – like you’ve been up all night watching the Twilight Zone and are now seeing gremlins on plane wings. It is also essential that you procrastinate. As we all know, procrastination is the writer’s friend.
Yes, I said friend.
Without procrastination how would we get that dreaded gurgling feeling of blind panic bubbling up from our colon in the middle of the night? How would we know were were supposed to be doing something – anything – if we did not feel that pit of doom approaching? It motivates us, terrifies us and makes us pick up the keyboard/pen/caffeine drip and actually get to work.
then again there is always the other approach. the Zen approach which involves herbal tea, organisational calendars and yoga.
But where’s the fun in that?
See, here I have just procrastinated for some ten minutes and already I feel motivated to switch screens and get my Word count on.
Just as soon as I’ve checked Twitter just one more time…..