Ultimately treasonous

[desperance]

The last temptation is the ultimate treason:
To do the right thing for the wrong reason.

That's one of my favourite quotations (Eliot, should I need to say so), and I've used it more than once in my work, and far more often than that in my life. It's one of my specialities, tho' I do sometimes try to disguise it as simple serendipity.

As, f'rexample, today. I am Gloomy and Depressed, and do not want to work. Not that it's impossibly difficult, I'm not stuck or anything, I'm just cast down. So I remember that I have to post a copy of Phantoms at the Phil II to an eager customer (hi, Ben!), which could entail a trip into town. On the other hand, there's a post office round the corner from here...

But if I went into town, I could buy some more padded envelopes, for future customers (I hope). But I don't actually have any others at the moment, and I couldn't post any more books till Monday, when I have to go into town anyway...

But I've got no cash in my purse, and if I go into town I can get some. That's a decider: two weak excuses don't carry it, but third time pays for all. Besides, I can think about the SF story I'm writing while I walk, the time won't be wasted, I'll be more energised by the time I get back...

So off I go, and five minutes from my door, what happens? I am struck by title and setting for my next play. Structure is waiting about fifty yards further down the hill; so is theme. By the time I reach town, I have characters and as much plot as I need. Eek...!

I still have to write the bloody story, though. Now. Not even going to make notes for the play, no. I am not a note-taking man, despite the subtitle to this journal. The play can wait. It can. Story. Yes. The story's the thing...

Comments

[devonellington.livejournal.com]

Go for it! I love it when the Muse smacks me upside the head.

Support your local post office!

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

Practical durham_rambler here: since you are a Lloyds TSB customer, you can use your debit card at the local post office to draw cash or indeed pay for other purchases. And the more business you put their way, the less likely it is to be closed due to falling turnover.

Re: Support your local post office!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yesss - but the last two urgent letters I posted (separately, a fortnight apart) at my local post office took ten days each to arrive; the last two parcels I carried up to my local post office they were unable to send, on account of their system refusing to recognise correct post codes. Efficiency wins over convenience; almost invariably, I take my post to the central sorting office to miss out one stage of the relay. I used to put London post directly onto the train, in the days when they still had mail trains (they had a little letter-slot in the side of the carriage, death by cuteness...).

Re: Support your local post office!

[julesjones]

Has that train gone away, then? I used to see it in Darlington sometimes, and was minded to put something into it for the sheer pleasure of saying that I posted something on the train, and having the postmarked envelope to prove it; but alas never had an envelope and stamp with me.

Re: Support your local post office!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they took it away. I don't think any mail goes by train any more; it's all planes and trucks. Another victim of privatisation, another stamp of carbon in the footprint...

[szandara.livejournal.com]

So the Muse lured you outdoors with weak excuses, in order to pounce on you! How lovely.

Make notes of the play, download the basics of it from your brain to make room for the SF story. An overcrowded frontal lobe is the devil's playground. Or something.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

You're probably right - and the gods they know, there's nothing else happening in my brain tonight. I just hate hate hate making notes. And working from them afterwards. I'm one of those rare writers who likes a blank page, an unmapped journey; it's terror that drives me onward.

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

Yes...I'm very good at that one.