It may be for you due to circumstances beyond your control, but in my case I've made such a hash we cannot even afford to rent a place at the moment. Currently back in the town I spent my early adulthood desperately trying to escape from. God awful. Think on, lad, think on. Towards the end of last year I found work which pays relatively well but so far has proved incredible erratic and unreliable so now I must find something regular to supplement it. And hold onto a daily early morning writing routine because first thing is the optimum time for this bod's neurons to fire and synapses to crackle.
I've already stolen a march on the new year by beginning Novel 90 yesterday (i.e. 750 words per day minimum in my case to complete my latest novella)
Which refreshes my memory on why I have felt so guilty pursuing the thing I love. Coming from war generation parents there is no time for such 'frippery'. It's what 'other people' do, not you, not 'us'. Not their fault. Safety and stability before all else. Aftre what they went through. It has taken me decades to de-condition myself. Still not quite there yet. You can take the boy out of the council estate, but you can't take the council estate...Oh yes you fucking can! And it is compounded by the tall poppy syndrome and inverted anti-cultural snobbery that pervades the UK. Don't get ideas above your station unless it's making an arse of yourself during the auditions on The X Factor/American Idol. Everybody in the UK - i.e. the sneering vox-pop media - loves people who are willing to make arses of themselves. And if people are successful in what they do and don't make arses of themselves the media will find a way to pull them down. This seeming humility and ever-so-'umble reticence - in which those with ideas above their station must be pulled down a peg or two for the benefit of 'the real people' masks a nation fast sinking under the weight of its own constipated conceit.
And if there is one motto I will carry with me this year it is this one:
Don't chase the dream because it ends up chasing you and becomes a bloody nightmare.
Just write. Write the poem. Write the story. Write the novella. Write the novel. Write it because you must and because it is the most purely enjoyable individual experience you know on this earth, you connect with being here in no more intense way, dependent on no thing and no one else but yourself. If there is talent it will out. And eventually You-Will-Be-Noticed.
matociquala posted this Conrad quote on the Novel in 90 page.
"I don't like work... but I like what is in work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - which no other man can ever know."
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And may the New Year bring you way more joy with, perhaps, more cash... and less puppets!
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It may be for you due to circumstances beyond your control, but in my case I've made such a hash we cannot even afford to rent a place at the moment. Currently back in the town I spent my early adulthood desperately trying to escape from. God awful. Think on, lad, think on. Towards the end of last year I found work which pays relatively well but so far has proved incredible erratic and unreliable so now I must find something regular to supplement it. And hold onto a daily early morning writing routine because first thing is the optimum time for this bod's neurons to fire and synapses to crackle.
I've already stolen a march on the new year by beginning Novel 90 yesterday (i.e. 750 words per day minimum in my case to complete my latest novella)
http://community.livejournal.com/novel_in_90/
Had a real pick-me-up from a couple of links by swan_tower (including the Novel 90 one) and this one:
http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html
Which refreshes my memory on why I have felt so guilty pursuing the thing I love. Coming from war generation parents there is no time for such 'frippery'. It's what 'other people' do, not you, not 'us'. Not their fault. Safety and stability before all else. Aftre what they went through. It has taken me decades to de-condition myself. Still not quite there yet. You can take the boy out of the council estate, but you can't take the council estate...Oh yes you fucking can! And it is compounded by the tall poppy syndrome and inverted anti-cultural snobbery that pervades the UK. Don't get ideas above your station unless it's making an arse of yourself during the auditions on The X Factor/American Idol. Everybody in the UK - i.e. the sneering vox-pop media - loves people who are willing to make arses of themselves. And if people are successful in what they do and don't make arses of themselves the media will find a way to pull them down. This seeming humility and ever-so-'umble reticence - in which those with ideas above their station must be pulled down a peg or two for the benefit of 'the real people' masks a nation fast sinking under the weight of its own constipated conceit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_6wDoxWJd4
That was a pick-me-up, too.
And if there is one motto I will carry with me this year it is this one:
Don't chase the dream because it ends up chasing you and becomes a bloody nightmare.
Just write. Write the poem. Write the story. Write the novella. Write the novel. Write it because you must and because it is the most purely enjoyable individual experience you know on this earth, you connect with being here in no more intense way, dependent on no thing and no one else but yourself. If there is talent it will out. And eventually You-Will-Be-Noticed.
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"I don't like work... but I like what is in work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - which no other man can ever know."
--Joseph Conrad
Abso-bloody-lutely!
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CHEERS!!
(Anonymous) 2008-01-01 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)We move on!
Here's to coming out of the darkness and making our own light in 2008.
Re: CHEERS!!
;)
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