A quick note on comments, emails etc
Just so people are aware, I’m currently not particularly well, and when I’m not well I have to prioritise stuff according to how much or how little it stresses me. Writing actually relieves my stress, so expect me to be positively logorrhoeic here over the next few weeks, but other forms of internet activity (Twitter, email, comments threads and so on) can very quickly raise my blood pressure, and that even goes for people I like.
So I’m very deliberately limiting myself to a two-hour period of the day, in the morning, where I’m allowing myself to take part in Twitter, Facebook, blog comments (including this blog’s comment threads) and personal emails. I currently owe Richard Flowers, Plok and my uncle all at least two long emails each, which will take up most of the next few days’ internet socialising time, so if I don’t respond to your email, comment or @reply, please, *please* don’t think I’m being rude, or that I’m ignoring you. I’ll try to get around to everything, but it’ll take longer than it otherwise would (and I’m not great at that stuff at the best of times).
Writing actually relieves my stress
I seem to recall at one point you making a post that was essentially “What would you be interested in me writing about?” (not that I could locate it via your tags, if it exists) – and, y’know, a subject that I would find very interesting would be you talking about the act of writing itself.
Personally, I identify far more strongly with the famous Dorothy Parker quote: “I hate writing, I love having written.” It’s something I have an affinity (and at least some small amount of talent) for, but the mental energy required – the constant problem-solving called for in fiction, for instance – can be quite taxing. Which in turn leads to periods of productivity followed by periods of resistance.
As an intelligent writer whose work I enjoy, and who doesn’t seem to suffer from that same problem, I’d love to hear you talk about your process sometime. To whatever degree you think might be of interest. Writing is something I continue to pursue, but I’m always in search of better and smarter methods, philosophies, and attitudes.
(Am I correct that you don’t have a contact email listed on your site? A holdover, I assume, from your experience with harassment a couple years back?)
That might be an interesting thing to talk about. I’m always hesitant, though, in talking about myself – partly because I find it hard to believe anyone is interested, and partly because I worry that a lot of the things people like about my writing are in fact the things I consider almost cheats (I’ve been told a number of times, for example, that I’m very good at structure, when in fact my structures are pretty much improvised – I never know how things are going to end until I get to the ending. I just have a very strong understanding of form because I started as a musician, and I think of construction in pop song terms).
As for breaking writers’ block, which I think is what you’re talking about, I just always have multiple different things on the go. You’ll notice that I start a lot of blog post series that fizzle out, or that don’t restart for a year – it’s because I hit a problem-solving wall and just go “Right, I’m obviously not getting anywhere with the Cerebus posts for now, I’ll go on to my posts about Seven Soldiers and come back to Cerebus when I’m ready”.
The writer Dean Wesley Smith, whose blog I admire greatly, says there’s no such thing as writers’ block, just project block, and I think he’s right. Like the reason there’s been a sudden spate of blog posts from me over the last few days is because I’m blocked on a few projects simultaneously (my short stories, Time Detective, the Kinks book and How We Know What We Know, – all of them things I have ideas for but don’t have the mental energy to write). So OK, I’ll write about politics, or the Beach Boys, or whatever, and then probably tonight I’ll write another short story because I’m keeping the habit of writing *something*.
As for a contact email, you’re right. I don’t list it on the site partly because of the inevitable harassment one gets as a political blogger, and partly because I don’t like getting spammed. It’s no secret, though – it’s andrew @ thenationalpep.co.uk – and I put the email address in my books. I just don’t want to issue an open invitation for abuse.
Incidentally, thanks for the compliments. And you see, I could never do what you do on your blog, that focussed looking at just one topic, where the next post *has* to be about July 1964′s Marvel comics, even if you’d really rather talk about August 1965′s DC ones, or whatever. I’d find that restrictive, and I think it’s admirable that you manage it. But that sort of thing may be why you have that productivity problem. I know I often think “Oh God do I *have* to write about the latest Grant Morrison comic/Lib Dem party resolution/episode of Doctor Who/bad Beach Boys solo album?” And the answer is, of course, no I don’t.