CONTACT ME:
Writing from Alter-Space
  • Home
    • Free Read: An Angel in the Mirror
  • Books
    • The Nightmarist and Other Stories
    • Exodus Sequence >
      • Wired
      • Reflected
      • Walked
      • Spooked
      • Suicided
      • Crashed
      • Woken
      • Experienced
      • Caged
      • Drowned
    • Exodus Sequence 2 >
      • Shattered
    • Fleet Quintet >
      • Transference
      • Flesh for Sale
      • V. Gomenzi
      • Commences
    • A Doorway into Ultra
    • Diamonds on the Moon
    • Clarendon House Anthologies
    • Microfiction
  • Blog

Sometimes nothing will do except a cliché

3/11/2017

0 Comments

 
​A supernatural element glanced through the buds on the trees and granted me an hour of relief from the demons.  Having returned my Kindle Fire at the Collect store (it broke, much to my horror, though a replacement was sent in an astonishing 24 hours), I took myself to Costa for a monthly flat white and the least sugary goodie to eat (ginger biscuits).  Turned out I had enough points for it all to be free!  Sitting in the window, I rocked with laughter at various Times articles (Giles Coren, Spreadshit Phil), then noticed the Costa music centre was playing “Beautiful Day” which I hadn’t really appreciated before.  Yes, it is, I mused, admiring the spindly new trees planted on the dusty concrete desert that is my, erm, high street/tiny lane.  And then I noticed that I was bopping to “Respect Yourself” which struck me as a fine message after weeks of listening to my “you are a total fucking failure” demons.  Clearly the St John’s Wort is working.  Or the caffeine rush.  On the other hand, it really is time I stepped out of this self-pity wallow.  It’s ghastly.  I hate it.  But often there is nothing to grab onto to get myself out of it.  I’m tired of telling myself how awful a writer I am.  I’m not brilliant, I know, but there are quite a few so-called writers who are WAY worse than I am.  And anyway, do I have to be the best?  Isn’t it enough that I’ve published six books?  Shouldn’t the knowledge that I’m getting better with each one sustain me?  Once, twenty years ago (um, actually I think it’s more) I promised myself that with every attempt I made at writing something, it would be – at the very least – better than the last thing I wrote.  So I may not be terribly talented and perhaps I don’t understand the selling market very well (nor do I want to) but I do know how to mutter the best clichés to myself:  “This above all – to think own self be true.”
The other one is “that way madness lies” (keeping to the Shakespearian cliché theme) and so it does if I try to Think Like Everyone Else.  I can’t.  I won't.  What is the point if one does.  There is already so much pointlessness.  I wouldn't want to add to it.  
After all, though this be madness, [] there is method in’t.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I live in Bloomsbury.
    I write.
    Sometimes it goes quite well.

    ​

    FOLLOW
    You can follow
    Diary of a
    Bloomsbury Writer
     
    on ​
    ​wordpress.com
    where it's called
    Writing from
    ​Alter-Space

    ​​

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All
    Commences
    Everlast
    Lent
    Life
    Life In Bloomsbury
    My Coronavirus Diary
    New Novel
    On Editing
    On Publishing
    On Writing
    Review
    Second Draft
    The Difficult Novel
    The End
    Writing Tips

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Markus Trienke, eflon, Larry Smith2010, __MaRiNa__, elminium, InvictusOU812, PaulBalfe, Rina Pitucci (Tilling 67), ANBerlin [Ondré], Sumriana Babyana, stevecadman, Darling Starlings, Saku Takakusaki, Rubén Díaz Caviedes, Ric Capucho, aquigabo!, Key Foster, Mrs Airwolfhound, my little red suitcase, Joe Le Merou, freestock.ca ♡ dare to share beauty, bluebirdsandteapots, the bridge, Flower Power girl, Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon, chakchouka, archer10 (Dennis) 85M Views, this lyre lark, Secret Pilgrim, Hunky Punk, waaanderlust, takkle K, michaelmueller410, paweesit, Rick Camacho, Gidzy, J.J. Verhoef, Honza M., HDValentin, kthypryn, Pfauenauge *back to school...on and off*, diana_robinson, indigoMood, enrico.pighetti, Maria Eklind, timsackton, docoverachiever, Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon, bjpcorp, matty_gibbon, katya_alagich