I Can't Take It Anymore
I'm reading Michael Palin's diary and I just can't take it anymore. Here is a quote from the last passage I read:
At last an, as yet, uninterrupted day's writing ahead of me, a luxury which hasn't happened for a long time. Thomas leaves for his playgroup at 9:55. Helen takes William out to the shops. All is quiet for a bit--the sun shines in onto my desk, and I feel all's well with the world.
At last an, as yet, uninterrupted day's writing ahead of me, a luxury which hasn't happened for a long time. Thomas leaves for his playgroup at 9:55. Helen takes William out to the shops. All is quiet for a bit--the sun shines in onto my desk, and I feel all's well with the world.
I'm going to finish writing this novel, goddammit. By November 6, 2008, two years to the day after I started it. I must find a way to spend my time at home writing.
Labels: Ms. Crankypanties, writing
posted by Jenny Jenny Flannery at
1:10 PM
10 Comments:
Michael Palin was always one of my favorite four or five Pythons.
I did check back on your novel recently and noticed a lull in the action. You could always use the old Pezda's Ghost approach to getting things done. This involves forsaking sleep, and working in the wee hours.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 2:17:00 PM
Uh-oh-- she's mad as hell, an' she 'ent gonna take it no mo!!
I know a nice writer's cabin in the woods of Eastern New York that you can stay at for a weekend to pound the keys, for god's sakes!!
Actually, that's what I've been doing today-- I offically started on "The Cellar Door", a story inspired by "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" by Chris Van Allsburg. I don't know where it's going, exactly, whether it'll be long enuff for novel length or the first of a series of short stories in my collection, "Roaming in the Gloaming", but I decided enuff wuz enuff and it was time to begin.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 4:06:00 PM
Funny how life always gets in the way of novel writing. For me, I stroll through Borders or Barnes & Noble and think, "Well, if every one of the millions of people whose books are piled up here found the time to write a publishable novel, then dammit, so can I." Of course, it would help if I were actually home writing instead of browsing through Barnes & Noble...
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:58:00 AM
Why on earth would anyone read Michael Palin's diary?
Isn't it just a lot of stuff about turning down Python reunion tours and considering offers to host shows for the travel channel about balloon riding through the Lesser Antilles?
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:40:00 PM
PG: I like him best too. Him and John Cleese.
I wish I had sleep I could forsake. Right now, I'm lucky to get enough so that I don't seem like I'm driving drunk. It's a parental authority thing that Doc and I are about to settle for good. We are planning a come to Jesus meeting with the children this evening about staying up too late.
Cap'n: Don't you think I know how lucky you are?!?
BSUWG: That same thought has crossed my mind at borders. Then I was immediately depressed thinking of all the people who would walk right by my book just like I was walking right by most of these.
Vikki: I bought the book for Doc and it's Palin's diaries from the "Python Years", so it chronicles that heady time of early success. I'm quitting reading it right now.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:54:00 PM
hon, I try to remember how lucky I am every night as the gloaming comes on and the Shadows come to stand around my chair and whisper horrible things to me about all the terrible things I've done. Lately they've even been reminding me of terrible things I've done to YOU-- as if they needed any extra fodder.
THEN, after a bit of THAT I get on the phone and call all my children and just FEEL the distance between us; my god, I can taste it. Then I go off and lie flat and stare into the Abyss for awhile before picking up a pencil and writing in my diary. This is why I can't write anything for Roaming after nightfall-- I'm just all shot to hell. I dunno if that's "lucky" or not...
Thursday, March 20, 2008 1:40:00 AM
Oh, and don't be so hard on yourself-- you and I and everyone else KNOWS you'll get both a big, freestanding cardboard case with your novel AND a whole endcap to yourself. Plus interviews with Terri Gross on NPR and book signings.
By the time Don't Look Down is remaindered, you'll have another novel out. I 'ent worried ay-tall...
Thursday, March 20, 2008 1:42:00 AM
BLOWING SHIT: don't forget the whiz-dum of The Chricket in Times Square when Chester Cricket is famous but becomes nostalgic and homesick and doens't feel like practicing.
TUCKER MOUSE: what do you mean, you don't feel like practicing?? That's like the sun saying it doesn't feel like shining!
HARRY CAT: well, there are cloudy days, too...
sometimes time spent lounging in bookstores away from your writing desk is necessary, I think.
Thursday, March 20, 2008 1:45:00 AM
Just do it. Something I wish I would just do too before my two original ideas or ways to say something are stolen. Argh.
Friday, March 21, 2008 8:33:00 AM
Hey Flannery,
I know you have the stuff to do it...Hope you can find the time...even if that means that you have to open a wormhole in the universe and extend your day beyond the normal 24 hours...Happy Easter, and I'll see you this week...
Sunday, March 23, 2008 9:00:00 AM
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home