Pouncing like a cat

The appropriately-named YA author Cat Clarke recently tweeted about how she works on her WIP by circumnavigating it via Twitter, Facebook, and random Internet surfing before sort of accidentally falling into her word.doc and being pleasantly surprised that it exists. She tricks herself.

Naturally I tweeted her back because this is also my METHOD, my MODE D’EMPLOI. It sounds better if you affix a professional sounding moniker to it especially if it is in French.

The way I visualize this is: I am a cat that is tossing a ball of yarn in the air and perhaps the yarn gets a little tangled and entraps the cat for a few minutes, and makes the cat flop around with its paws in the air slightly bemused and distracted, until finally the cat dominates the ball of yarn and sits on it. And then the cat is boss and the yarn complies and lets the cat get on with the real work which is of course finishing a book.

It’s not slacking. It’s my METHOD, I tell myself frequently.

Listen we all resolve not to spend useless time on the internet. Not that I in fact think it is useless- even the most useless bits like looking at people sneeze on YouTube- because it connects us to life and people. Mundane stuff maybe but still it reminds us that there are people and things happening outside our cocoon.

The main reason though that I indulge in a little surfing and messing around…I mean utilize this METHOD is that it un-tethers my mind and prepares it for work. In much the same way that washing the dishes/vacuuming/walking the dog does.
And by the way, were talking moderation in the METHOD here because too much turns your brain mushy and convinces you that being a writer is more about increasing your followers on Twitter and trying to come up with witticisms in under 141 characters. We can’t all be Kanye West.

So anyway, that’s my METHOD. What’s yours?