John interrupted me while I was working on an article this morning to ask a question about Photoshop, and I got all surly on him. When I’m writing, I hate losing my train of thought. John, on the other hand, thrives on the immediate…most of the time anyway. I can easily waste half an hour debating about whether or not to use the word “call” or “invite,” while John has a snack, checks the soccer scores, does some printing, makes a few notes and then pulls up a few weeds. Likewise, Robin gets a lot done in a short period of time. I think most of his plays were written in fifteen-minute increments.
But even prolific writers hate being interrupted: Enid Blyton, for example. (Remember her awful Noddy books? I used to hate getting one of them for a gift when I was a child.) Anyway, Blyton could write 10,000 words in a day. I believe she compared the process to unrolling a ball of wool. But if anyone interrupted her while she was working, she had to start all over again from the beginning.
According to Wikipedia, Blyton is the fifth most popular writer in the world (Shakespeare is sixth!) and she wrote over 3,000 books. Yowza! And I’m having trouble finishing one.
1 comment:
Susan,
what a walk down memory lane! I remember reading her books (but not Noddy). I think it was the Famous Five series. What I would give to be able to write 10,000 words a day.
Mary
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