Writing and Not Writing
Today’s Wordpress Blogging University writing exercise is asking me to consider what I might write if I had more time to write:
If you’re not a full-time writer, or if your day is so full of other tasks that you have little time to write, consider these alternative questions: if you could step into a machine that gave you more time, what would you write with this extra time? I would like to think that I might write a sprawling epic in the style of Ernest Hemingway, or F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I think we all know the chances of that are infinitesimal. Most people probably think they can be Hemingway on a good day – but that’s the thing – he did it all the damn time (sure, he was often inebriated, or fighting somebody else’s war, but still…).
Maybe if I lowered my sights, I could writing biting commentary about the modern world. It might be fun to do the celebrity culture beat, and re-trace the path Toby Young did while accruing material for “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People”.
Could I be the next Tom Wolfe? Maybe. Stop laughing. Ok, maybe not.
Let’s be honest. If I had more time, the chances of spending it writing are minimal, because I typically write blog posts when I should really be doing something else. Ergo – absence of time is NOT the reason I haven’t written anything of consequence. If anything, making me more busy will cause me to search out procrastinatory pursuits even more actively, which might result in even more writing.