Guest Post by Julie Duffy, @storyadaymay
The sad
truth is that the role of 'writer' does not come with staff. Even full-time
professional writers, for the most part, are not issued with a full-time
assistant. Most writers still have to shop for food, clean the bathrooms and
tidy up after ourselves.
But never
again should your domestic chores become a reason not to write. WU brings you
the Essential Guide to Writing While Cleaning Your House.
(Brain)storming
The Castle
As any of
you who have ever taken a shower will know, our best ideas are often
accompanied by the sounds of running water and the smell of soap. Surely it
might work just as well if you are scrubbing the shower rather than yourself?
So turn
off the TV, mute the radio (or set it to soundtracks or classical, or your
writing music of choice) and start thinking about your characters while you
scrub.
How
To Write While Doing Something Else
Now,
granted, you're probably not going to do a lot of actual typing or writing while
you're wrestling sheets off the bed, or scrubbing under the u-bend. But there
are ways of working when you're not at your desk.
You can
plan scenes, dream up plot points or even carry a voice recorder with you to
capture ideas and passages of prose (this works rather better well when there
is no-one else in your house at the time who'll pop their head in and say,
"What? Were you talking to me?")
Link
Your Scenes To Certain Jobs
Breaking
down a big job into smaller tasks stops you becoming overwhelmed and happily,
this works for cleaning and storytelling. You have a list of scenes to write
and you have a list of rooms to clean. Make these two things work for you, by
assigning different scenes to different rooms.
When
choosing what to work on in each room, consider the setting. Use the different
rooms to enhance your writing:
*Cleaning the kitchen? Work on a sensual
scene, maybe a dinner or a scene where your hero and heroine trap, skin, gut
and cook a small defenseless creature. Mmmm, carnal!
*Kid's bedroom? Think about your teenage
character's next big scene while you're fording the sea of discarded clothes in
your own child's room to reclaim your best earrings from the heap of gewgaws
beside her bed.
*Your bedroom? The ideal opportunity to
work on the big romantic, er, climax. Or not...
*Folding laundry? Perfect! This
repetitive, mechanical task is ideal for letting your mind take a flight of
fancy. Plan your big turning points now. Run through a critical piece of
dialogue. Audition daring new ideas in the safety of a fluffy, fragrant
folding-spree.
*Bathroom? Definitely time to work on
your villain!
Mine
Your Own Emotions
Everything
we write is colored by our own experiences and the little details are often the
ones that bring our characters to life for a reader.So pay attention as you
bend and stretch and scrub and fold, to how you are moving.
What do
you do when your back aches? Would your character move the same way?
How do
you feel when faced with a mountain of unwashed dishes --- again? That's how
your hero feels at the 'all is lost' point just before the climax.
Are you
disgusted by the bathroom floor? Great! Notice what you do, how your facial
muscles contort, and how your stomach feels, then use it all when your heroine
encounters the villain at his most dastardly.
Live
To Write
We all
like to imagine how life would be if we had Neil Gaiman's writing gazebo in the
woods and a fleet of assistants to shop and fetch and clean for us. But in the
meantime, lets turn our formidable creative powers to the task of turning
household chores into the raw material of great writing.
If we can
do that, surely there's no creative problem that can defeat us!
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