I once had a wonderful client who told me that 90% of what he
paid me to do was to stare out of the window looking for inspiration, and 10%
was for the actual work. I loved that man.
So this week when I had writer’s block and a lot of
deadlines, I did the right thing. I took it very seriously and immediately set about
cleaning my office.
My office, ah… When I moved into my house it came with a
writer’s dream—a little building out back that had served as a storage room. I immediately converted that into a real
office. For the first time in my life I was
going to have a dedicated space to write. Not a spare corner, not a ‘guest’
room, but an actual office.
The great thing about being a freelancer is that you have
control of your time because you have no boss. The bad news is that means you toil
constantly, because you are never sure when you will work again. When the
office is in your house, it’s even worse.
Wherever you go in the place, you see your work and hear it
call. It’s not a myth that some freelancers never get out of their pajamas
during the day. It’s not that they’re lazy; it’s just the opposite. They just
get up, get coffee and start working. They mean
to get dressed; it just never seems to happen. They’re too busy.
Anyway, when I moved into my office, the first thing I
unpacked was my laptop. Then I built the wall of shelving to store my albums. It’s important to note that I am not handy. So
while the guy at Lowes assured me that a monkey with its eyes closed could
assemble the metal shelves in a snap, it took me two days.
Cursing seemed to
help. A whole lot of cursing.
Next I unpacked the 27 boxes of vinyl . That I had lugged
there by myself. Because I didn’t trust
the movers not to drop and break them. Of
course, the boxes were all mixed up, so I had to re-alphabetize them. This took
a while. Not to mention that it was a lot of fun. Who knew I still had the
entire Nils Lofgren catalog? And that awesome Boo Hewerdine album? David +
David anyone?
After that came the cartons
of CDs. They were all messed up, so they too had to be alphabetized. Eventually
though, I really needed to get to work so I could afford to keep the office. So I unpacked the printer and arranged to get
the internet. That was a lot less entertaining.
Which leads me back to this week’s deadlines. Being a freelancer is a bit weird. I currently
have a bunch of work, but some of it—the interesting stuff --is spec jobs and
proposals. These are often cool, but just as regularly don’t pan out into actual
work. Sometimes that makes it difficult to find the initiative to sit down and create.
I know I need to do it—and I will—I’ve never missed a
deadline. Yet….
But my office is located about 20 feet from the horse paddock.
While I’m staring out windows (there’s that 90%), I can’t help but notice that
the horses are disgusting—they’ve been rolling and now are covered with dust
and mud. How can I possibly concentrate
when I know they’re miserable? Or at least I am miserable looking at them.
Then there’s the dogs. They haven’t been walked yet. A recent
study claimed that taking a short walk was the best way to kick start a stalled
thought process. I bet though, that walking
three dogs for 20 minutes each wasn’t what they had in mind.
Besides, I feel guilty if I actually leave the office. Even
though, in this world of cell phones, voice recorders, email , texts, Facebook and
Twitter, it is actually impossible to miss a message, I still don’t believe it.
I act as if Paramount is going to contact me about that script and I’m going to
miss it. No matter that I haven’t even submitted the damn thing to anyone yet.
Which is how I have come to the conclusion that I need to
clean the office. I won’t even have to
leave. There’s plenty to do. The place is piled with papers, scripts and books.
Music is stacked on the floor. The pictures are all crooked. It’s impossible to work under these
conditions.
The reality is this: as soon as I start dusting, I’ll
realize how much more I like to write than clean. Which is why my office will never really be
spic and span and I never blow a deadline.
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