Robert De Niro and Me
image (via Flickr creative commons)
“The mind of a writer can be a truly terrifying thing. Isolated, neurotic, caffeine-addled, crippled by procrastination and consumed by feelings of panic, self-loathing and soul-crushing inadequacy. And that’s on a good day.” —Robert De Niro
If you watched the Oscars, you no doubt heard De Niro deliver this pronouncement on writers. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I decided to experiment (with myself as guinea pig) and test his hypothesis. I call it One Day in the Life of a Writer. Catchy, yes?
So, Monday is my designated Writing Day. All week I had been looking forward to Writing Day, barely suppressing the itch to complete draft two of my current work, Poseidon and Me. All week I said to myself, Just wait till Monday. It became a mantra.
At last Monday! Writing Day had arrived! Here’s how it went down.
I woke up early. Writers come in two flavors—those who work late and those who work early. Four am is a prime time for writers. Writer A is winding down while Writer B is starting her day. If you ever want to convene a writers symposium, four am would be the ideal time.
Confession: Four am on Writing Day found me still abed. However, by six I was up.
Anyhow, I began the day brewing a pot of coffee, thus confirming Mr. De Niro’s third premise. Cup in hand, I perused email and read up on book marketing tips. (Mind you, I did no actual book marketing. I subscribe to the Marketing Osmosis Theory which stipulates that once you have read about book marketing sufficiently, said marketing and its cousin, book sales, will magically occur in the night. Something akin to the shoemaker’s elves.)
Next, I put in a load of laundry because, of course, that takes no time. While I was waiting for the wash, I took the dog for a walk. It’s a proven fact that movement stimulates the right brain, which is the creative center, so I was preparing myself to be creative. After hanging up the laundry, I drove to Walgreen’s for a special on stretch pants, 2 for 9.99. After all, as writer Mary Heaton Vorse explained, the most important aspect of writing is applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. I needed that seat to be as comfortable as possible for Writing Day. Unfortunately, the first Walgreen’s I scoured did not have that special, but they did offer four cotton tank tops for $12. Why be comfortable only on the bottom? Purchase in hand, I scooted to the next Walgreen’s where I was able to procure the stretch pants.
Once home, I was surprised to discover it was lunch time. I made lunch, and afterward, took my customary nap. According to WebMD, research has shown that midday naps “boost memory and enhance creativity.” As such, naps are a critical part of any writer’s arsenal. Now it was time to brew that second pot of coffee.
I don’t know what happened after that, but at 4:30 pm on Writing Day I flexed hands (afflicted with caffeine shakes if you must know) and sat down at the computer to write. Yes, Mr. De Niro, I was filled with self-loathing for my procrastination, and if I admit the truth, I felt inadequate.
But I wrote. And it was a good day.
4 thoughts on “Robert De Niro and Me”
Better late than never, right? The important thing is to write, that’s what I tell my procrastinating mind, morning, evening, doesn’t matter as long as it’s done, though I find that morning is often the best.
I hope you have many more great writing days.
Yes, Delia, I agree about the morning being the best. There’s something so exciting about that hot cup of coffee just the way you like it, a quiet house, and morning sun. You inspire me to strive for that this coming Monday. Thanks for the comment!
Yup, that pretty much describes me on any given day. Days when I actually write things (as opposed to think about writing things) are good days. ^_^ Glad you got to write something. ^_^
Glad I have company in my badness. Oh, that was sick of me. I hope you get to write something, too! To be fair, though, I think thinking about writing is close to writing and actually does some of the work. There’s this great quote from a character about writing in the book I’m currently reading, Beautiful Ruins by Jesse: “He’d been talking and thinking about this book for so long–it was as if it already existed, as if he’d already written it in some way, as if it was just out there, in the air, and all he had to do was find a place to tap into the story, like a stream passing by” (227).