Are you a marathon writer? Or a dribs and drabs, scraps of paper on the fly kind of writer? I've always been the former. I would fret and fret and not do a lick of work until finally I found a few solid days in which to focus 100% at which point I would sit my ass down and write, write, write, eat, stretch. Repeat. And it would be so intense and exhausting that at the end of getting out a draft (usually this kind of work involves a first draft), I would want to unplug the phone, lock the doors and veg out on Law & Order and pizza for a few days.
My therapist suggested recently that this might not be the healthiest approach to living.
And so, over the past month or so I have been trying something new. I've been trying to write a little here, write a little there. Make some notes, organize some ideas... in a much more casual and less frantic way. And this past weekend I actually had brunch with two friends, read a book for pleasure, called my mom and sister AND managed to clock about 6 hours of solid creative work.
And, you know what? It kind of felt better. It's Monday. I didn't get as much done as I might have had I dove into one of my marathon sessions of work, but I sure feel a lot better and don't feel the need to just lie down and tune out.
What do you say to all this? Are you a marathon runner? Or do you walk your way through your work in a way that allows for the occasional rose sniffing?
Do tell.
