Tim Bisley: You got anything special planned for today?Daisy Steiner: I have got a bit of a project, actually. I'm going to be as inactive as I can in order to really get into the psyche of someone unemployed, not just vocationally but cerebrally, to see if the predicament of enforced passivity exacerbates itself. You know, does inactivity breed laziness?Tim Bisley: Are you going to write an article about it?Daisy Steiner: No, I can't be bothered.
Daisy is the kind of writer who doesn't actually write. She procrastinates. There is a choice episode of Spaced in series 2 where she reapplies for benefits. Anyone who has been off and on Centrelink can't help but relate to it. Let's just say that in my current situation, I can confirm that the quote above is horribly, horribly true.
So I am job hunting, agent hunting and writing new things. And I am writing. But it's hard to kill the apathy if you have lots of empty time. I am slowly working on a new manuscript. And it's great, don't get me wrong. I have exciting plans for it. But it's still new. I can't work on it every day, I need time to think on it off and on. There's a danger for me, when I have lots of time, that I will over-work something into the ground and kill it. I like to think a new project is a fragile butterfly or snowflake or (insert lame metaphor). And if your routine has been messed with and a lot of things are up in the air, motivation can be hard. Especially if you have an excess of time. It's hard to switch motivation off and on like that, if you need it one second and it's not necessary the other.
So that's what I'm doing right now. How are you?
