Writers Block

I forgot to write a classic quote I found in ‘Boy’ while I was away so I thought I’d shove it up now. I think it encompasses how I feel about work at the moment. Really enjoyed just lazing about reading in France for ages, finished Pi, although I found it to drag on somewhat, the quirky bit at the end made it fairly clever. Onto some Pratchett now after resisiting for ages. Anyways, here you go..

‘The life of a writer is absolute hell compared with the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to go to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn’t go to his desk at all there is nobody there to scold him. If he is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each new day demands new ideas* and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not. Two hours of writing fiction leaves this particular writer absolutely drained. For those two hours he has been miles away, he has been somewhere else, in a different place with totally different people, and the effort of swimming back into normal surroundings is very great. It is almost a shock. The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it. It happens to be a fact that nearly every writer of fiction in the world drinks more whisky than is good for him. He does it to give himself faith, hope and courage. A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul*, and that I’m sure, is why he does it.’

*I’d say this goes for non-fiction too…

*Except of course if he subscribes to one of a number of religions…..or in Pi’s case, a number of religions