If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo and have your story idea, pen, paper, laptop, and inspirational soundtrack, but are still blocked, check out these words of wisdom from some of “history’s fastest, most prolific authors” at The Atlantic. Read advice from Joyce Carol Oates, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen King, and others.
My favorite entry comes from Muriel Spark (I dig cat people):
“If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work, I explained, the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp. The light from a lamp, I explained, gives a cat great satisfaction. The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious.”
2 responses
I would like this magic cat that settles down, and does not paw at my leg for attention, does not feel the need to explore papers in the wastebasket, does not decide to try to climb the bookshelves, does not claw at the doorjamb for attention (and then scamper away as quickly as possible once I turn around to give it attention).
I love my cat/s but they do not help me write!!
You don’t need a magic cat, you need a magic desk lamp! Clearly this particular lamp exerted hypnotic powers over Muriel Sparks’ cat.
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