Past Midnight

 

The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flauherty  This is embarrassing, the third entry on the same book.  I did say it was a slow read... well somewhere between Kipnuk and Newtok it got shelved, literally, and I finally finished reading it so this will be the last post on that book.  First off I love this quote: "In both students and professional writers, the act of writing both intensified positive emotions and blunted negative ones."206 This was part of a study where researchers were looking at the anxiety people feel writing... it was surprising that the act of writing makes people feel better.  It is like a friend who listens and doesn't interrupt, but lets you finish your thoughts.  In short writing will make you feel better.  Smile.  This is what makes writing teachers happy.  

The next part of the book was about how metaphor helps people think and make meaning out of their life.  "By giving abstract concepts tastes, colors, smells, and emotional resonance, metaphors fix them in our minds and make us feel we can understand them."230 

The book closes by discussing the writer's muse... or inspiration.  When writers feel inspired the words flow, time becomes meaningless it is just easy.  "Some writers, though, may truly write without ever getting lost in their work, without ever feeling as if it just flows out of them, let alone flows into them from some external source."238 This is sad, but I guess true.  I don't really think there are muses so to speak, but I do think there may be some divine inspiration sometimes.  Mostly it seems times like that for me, especially when I made pottery,  time drops away when things are going right.  I am enjoying the moment so much, I don't notice time.  It is meaningless.  (That sometimes happens when things are going smoothly in class, while quilting, reading a good book... you get the idea.)  I think everyone should find a job that time drops away from them when doing that work.  It is a sign you are doing the right thing.

Please comment on what you do that you enjoy so much you lose track of time.