It's Been a Good Life by Isaac Asimov

Author:Isaac Asimov [Asimov, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2009-07-02T08:18:00+00:00

Twenty-One.

ON PROLIFICITY

My favorite kind of day (provided I don't have an unbreakable appointment that is going to force me out into it) is a cold, dreary, gusty, sleety day, when I can sit at my typewriter or word processor in peace and security ...

A compulsive writer must be always ready to write. Sprague de Camp once stated that anyone wishing to write must block out four hours of uninterrupted solitude, because it takes a long time to get started, and if you are interrupted, you would have to start all over again from the beginning.

Maybe so, but anyone who can't write unless he can count on four uninterrupted hours is not likely to be prolific. It is important to be able to begin writing at any time. If there are fifteen minutes in which I have nothing to do, that's enough to write a page or so. Nor do I have to sit around and waste long periods of time arranging my thoughts in order to write.

I was once asked by someone what I did in order to start writing. I said, blankly, "What do you mean?"

"Well, do you do setting-up exercises first, or sharpen all your pencils, or do a crossword puzzle-you know, something to get yourself into the mood."

"Oh," I said, enlightened, "I see what you mean. Yes! Before I can possibly begin writing, it is always necessary for me to turn on my electric typewriter and to get close enough to it so that my fingers can reach the keys."

Why is this? What is the secret of the instant start?

For one thing, I don't write only when I'm writing. Whenever I'm away from my typewriter-eating, falling asleep, performing my ablutions-my mind keeps working. On occasion, I can hear bits of dialogue running through my thoughts, or passages of exposition. Usually, it deals with whatever I am writing or am about to write. Even when I don't hear the actual words, I know that my mind is working on it unconsciously.

That's why I'm always ready to write. Everything is, in a sense, already written. I can just sit down and type it all out, at up to a hundred words a minute, at my mind's dictation. Furthermore, I can be interrupted and it doesn't affect me. After the interruption, I simply return to the business at hand and continue typing under mental dictation.

It means, of course, that what enters your mind must stay in your mind. I always take that for granted, so that I never make notes. When Janet and I were first married, I would sometimes say, during a few wakeful moments at night, "I know what I ought to do in the novel."

She would say, anxiously, "Get up and write it down."

But I would say, "I don't have to," turn over, and let myself drift off to sleep.

And the next morning I would remember it, of course. Janet used to say that it drove her crazy at first but she got used to it.

The ordinary writer is bound to be assailed by insecurities as he writes.

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