I took Old Betsy the laptop out for a stretch today – blew the cobwebs off the mummified remains of Windows XP and like a total word warrior, went to a coffee shop to write.
I set myself up in a bright and breezy place on 5th Ave. It was a blazingly hot day, but the air inside was as cool as a glacial spring. They love me in here, and I love them back, even though the food’s not that good. (Also, every single other seating area in Park Slope is occupied by 8.15 am sharp on the weekend. Don’t people have homes they can write in?!). So I open up my free scriptwriting software of choice, and see I’m on page 63 of my spec. It’s goddamn perfect so far. Only about 30 pages to go. Easy.
Except it wasn’t. After taking a massive break from writing, I couldn’t remember where I was in the story. Had to re-read the whole thing again, and then gently – carefully – caress the words out of their hiding place like nervous kittens. Wrote two pages. Took three hours. And I’m not even sure I’m going to keep those, seeing as they felt so clunky.
There’s a lesson there somewhere (in fact, completely obvious) – No matter what, don’t take a break in the middle of a project. Just keep going.
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