With some unexpected creative time opening up for me, I revisited an old classic for inspiration, Ann Patchett’s The Getaway Car, her essay about “what has worked for [her]” in terms of writing.
Once when Patchett felt like she wasn’t getting any writing done, she spoke to a bassoonist friend who told her a trick:
“He had put a sign-in sheet at the door of his studio, and when he went in to compose he wrote down the time, and when he stopped composing he wrote down that time, too. He told me that he had found that the more hours he spent composing, the more compositions he finished. Time applied equaled work completed. I was gobsmacked, and if you think I’m kidding, I’m not. It’s possible to let the thinking about process become so overly analyzed that the obvious answer gets lost.”
She tried it and—can you guess? “The result was a stretch of some of the best writing I’d done in a long time.”
Naturally, if it worked for Ann Patchett, I thought I’d give it a try. I made a Google doc sign-in table: date, time, and what I worked on. For listmakers and checker-offers, it gives double the satisfaction. I feel like it’s working. That is, I’m showing up, butt in the chair. Putting in the work (whether that work is good is another story. And actually, none of my business).
Let me leave you with more Getaway Car inspo (I’m quoting too much, I know, but I can’t help myself): “Now when people tell me they’re desperate to write a book, I tell them about Edgar’s sign-in sheet. I tell them to give this great dream that is burning them down like a house fire one lousy hour a day for one measly month, and when they’ve done that—one month, every single day—to call me back and we’ll talk. They almost never call back.
“Do you want to do this thing? Sit down and do it. Are you not writing? Keep sitting there. Does it not feel right? Keep sitting there. Think of yourself as a monk walking the path to enlightenment. Think of yourself as a high school senior wanting to become a neurosurgeon. Is it possible? Yes. Is there some shortcut? Not one I’ve found. Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world.”
Cheers,
Lacy
P.S. For more Ann Patchett essay delights, see her latest collection, These Precious Days.
P.P.S. Who’s read Patchett’s latest novel, Tom Lake? I haven’t yet, but I hear it’s wonderful.
This is great timing for NaNoWriMo. (If that's still a thing.) Here's to punching that clock!