July 28, 2006
Over on Murderati--see above link--TV writer Paul Guyot writes about discipline, or lack of it. It's a funny and odd bit of stream-of-consciousness about sitting at your computer and doing everything but the work you're supposed to be doing (yeah, I can relate), and I responded with a flippant and facetious comment, mentioning an article I read on MSN.com yesterday about 24 steps toward a better marriage, or something like that.

And one of the steps (of course, being a guy, I liked this one) was, have sex even when you don't feel like having sex. The idea being that even if you're tired, once you get going, your, uh, desire will catch up to your arousal. That, as a matter of fact, you're training your body and brain to want sex. (I'm a guy. My brain doesn't need any more training in this area. I've been something of an expert on this since I was in my early teens--the wanting part, anyway).

TMI?

The point here other than my libido, of which I rarely talk, is that if you get to your computer to write at the same time every day, and write, you're training your body and mind to write.

Lawrence Block wrote a column about solitaire once, saying he would sit down at his desk and play solitaire until he felt like writing. This was in the pre-computer days. He did not want people sending him letters about solitaire or variations on the game. As a matter of fact, he wrote, he hated solitaire. But he played it to make sure he stayed at his desk when he was bored or blank and didn't go off and have a life and do non-writing related things. I admit this is good advice, although the Internet and computers have brought the whole freakin' universe to your fingertips and I could probably kill an entire day with blogs and websurfing if I let myself.

So sit your ass down and do that writing thing.

Best,
Mark Terry