Blog 27
September 17, 2021
Writing under duress. I imagine as many reactions to
that underscored word as I do readers of this blog. Whatever the reaction to
duress, it could significantly affect the needed equilibrium of a writer to
create.
Familiar to
many writers would be the duress of
deadline, externally or self-imposed. My sense is the latter might be an
even more difficult challenge. If it’s just me and my pen (or keyboard), the
pressure emanating from within, let me count the ways I can divert myself from
the task at hand. I cannot; the number defies counting.
Most of us
have dealt with deadline duress multiple times, e.g. likely at every level of
education and work. At this moment, I’m referring to creative writing, i.e.
fiction, and the duress of external pressures, unrelated to writing that, nevertheless,
impinge upon it. To cite just a few examples: a personal or occupational
crisis, the loss of a loved one or a beloved pet, tension in a major
relationship (especially when you’re trying to write about relationships) and,
not unfamiliarly, a financial pressure.
My purpose in
examining this issue is not to restate the obvious. We all share in periodic
bouts of duress. Rather, it’s to stimulate thought as to how to deal with it,
how each of us deals with something that has the power to douse the flame on
our desire and wherewithal to create. Let me initiate an approach to the
question by offering a couple of my methods to prevent duress from grinding my
writing life to a halt.
Framing an
effort to combat the ordeal of duress, I strive to maintain routines, e.g.
exercise, when it would be so easy to let them go. To accomplish this, one’s
sense of meaningfulness normally derived from routine may need to be
temporarily suspended. The purpose is to get through the duress functioning.
The routines of yesterday, pre-duress, were part of the structure of my life
and they will likely be so post-duress. Therefore, I strive to bridge the abyss
of duress by sustaining routines of living when they temporarily appear
diminished in relevance. In addition to reminding myself at some point the
duress will end or at least lessen in intensity, I maintain some aspect of the
writing process on a daily basis – writing, if I feel I can; if I feel I cannot,
then, revision, editing, reading, and, if possible, thinking about what I’m writing
and where I’m headed.
Recently,
under duress, I thought of the firefighters from New York City who died
heroically on 9-11-2001. It brought immediate perspective to my duress,
shrinking it while calming, allowing me to proceed.
What do you
do, some of your methods?
