Between Books
Saturday 10th February
I love that expression actors used to use when they were between jobs - resting. Do they still say that, I wonder. What I like is the idea that the state of inactivity in which they find themselves is entirely intentional. It gives no hint of the precariousness of the acting profession, that the actor may not know where their next rent payment is coming from. They are simply resting, with its clear implication that soon the rest will be over and they will be back at it.
I am between books currently. It’s not quite the same as ‘resting’ because I have a contract requiring me to write more and so the word doesn’t contain that wonderful disingenuousness that it has when the acting profession use it. But still, I like the concept.
You often hear authors say when they reach the end of a novel that they are spent, that they can’t imagine where they will ever dig up the energy required to do it all again. They fret that they will never have an idea quite as good as the one they just finished with.
I’m not like that. I have my ideas, good and bad, lined up in a neat row waiting for me to shine a torch on them to see if they are still breathing. Yet, despite that, I can’t just leap out of one book and into the next. I need a period of inactivity first.
Have you read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron? If not, I thoroughly recommend it. It’s packed to the gunwales with tips and tricks to unearth your inner creativity. (As an aside, I saw it shelved in the Art section in my local Waterstones this week. Someone hadn’t gone further than the title I suspect.)
Anyway, my favourite piece of advice from it is about ‘filling your creative well’. Ms Cameron argues that unless you pour ideas into yourself then how can you have anything to draw upon when you’re making your art. And she’s spot on. Back when we were all forced to stay at home for those interminable months, I really started to feel the need for creative well filling. Yes, I had books and Netflix - but everything was in two dimensions and after a while that was no longer enough to inspire me. I needed real experience to fire my imagination. I was simply not enough on my own.
So, how am I spending my time as my well refills now? Well, obviously books and Netflix play a fairly big part, but also just being in the world, moving about absorbing interesting stuff and trying not to think about the book I will start writing on March 13th. The aim is that when I open my new Scrivener folder and type in the working title, then my imagination will be fully rested and inspired and ready to carry me along to The End.
Have a lovely weekend. Back this time next week.