Writer in Residence

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WRITER

8am. Wake up. Look out window. Check weather. Weather is important. Drink a glass of hot water with lemon. Health and bowels are important. Meditate for half an hour. Calmness is important.  Make breakfast tray. Pot of strong tea, two slices of Vogel’s toast. One with marmalade and thick Greek yoghurt. One with thinly sliced tomato, salt & pepper. Food is very important. Take phone off the hook. Go back to bed. Eat, drink and read for half an hour, or longer. This is called research. Reading matter: cooking magazines, glossy supplements from the weekend paper, poetry books, art books, an old New Yorker. Occasionally make a small note about something. Low culture is important. Read horoscope and decide what to cook for dinner. Elizabeth Jolley said she could never start writing for the day until she’d worked out what to have for tea that night.

10am.  Have shower, brush teeth, etc. Get dressed in writing outfit: baggy trousers, loosest possible bra, comfy warm top, cosy socks, slippers. Must  be comfortable or can’t possibly write. Add earrings, to show have not completely turned into a bag lady. Check email. Spend next hour or so doing business, administrative tasks, etc. This can include googling up crossword puzzle answers, sending bio-note to a school or a Writers’ Festival, sending a poem to a friend, sensible correspondence with publisher, editor, student.

11am  Take break between business and writing by going for brisk walk. Exercise is important. Let brain roam free and look at things: sky, gardens, cats, passers-by, letterboxes, squashed hedgehog on road.  Return to study. Work on book, article, poem, until get bored. Make a cup of tea, probably Earl Grey but sometimes Jasmine. Return to study, work on whatever I am working on.  If writing a novel, goal is 500 words a day. Good words. The right words in the right order, as Coleridge said, though not to me.

2.30ish   Seek food. Tasty leftovers, if have any. Otherwise soup. Often vegetable, sometimes chicken.  Eat lunch, whilst reading something. Take vitamins: multi, fish oil, St John’s Wort. (Most writers are melancholy.) Drink green tea, a beverage high in antioxidants. Do small tasks such as take scraps to compost, put rubbish out, begin cooking dinner, phone a friend, the lawn mower guy, optometrist. Or, look out the window for a long time, wondering if should have become a documentary film-maker, or be thinner and more intelligent than I am, and living in New York, running a funky café.

4 o’clock. Research, AKA watching a cooking show. Then back into study to work on whatever I am working on.  Alternatively, go to town, visit library, stationery shop, photocopier . Perhaps meet a friend for literary gossip, book swapping, discussion about the meaning of life. Think a bit.  Do sensible errands. More drinking of tea. Caffeine is important.

And so the day slips away. Afternoon becomes evening. I like cooking dinner, happy to get out of my head, into chopping carrots and sprinkling spices, After eating, I watch telly, but only if it is intelligent, or funny. Preferably both. Sometimes I have glass of wine but not often. Have to be  careful. Many writers are alcoholics. If nothing on telly, read, or play Scrabble with significant other. Often end up back in study, writing a list or two. This can make life seem ordered rather than chaotic. Write in journal. Check email. Look at the moon, languish in a hot bath, turn off the light at midnight.

Sometimes I do other stuff, such as edit for money, teach creative writing, plan my teaching, travel, give a radio interview, write a book review or an article, attend a book launch, surf the net, listen to the radio, go to a movie, visit an art gallery. I like to hang out with creative people. I also enjoy asking questions, of the man in the delicatessen, the woman on the bus, or the kid at the skateboard park. You can get away with it when you say you’re a writer. I aim to balance thinking and doing, intimacy and solitude, pleasure and pain, hard work and lazy bits. My bank balance is reasonable, although my income arrives in fits and starts. I can sleep in, work at midnight, stay in my pyjamas all day, travel the world and claim it on my tax. There you have it. The writer’s life.

Today I went to do my blog and it says that it is William. But in my mind map I finish on Sunday so I will write one today and tomorrow. All in all it has been most fun and nice. Great to meet you all, to commune creatively, to be inspired and hopefully to inspire. I am sending warm wishes to you, in your world of words. I hope your weekend contains mysterious good surprises, a walk on a beach, a glass of something delicious, and most of all, time to read.

I love inspiring quotes. I collect them, in the same way other people collect marbles, salt and pepper shakers or shoes.  Here are some faves.

“Walking on water wasn’t built in a day.”  Jack Kerouac

“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” Andre Gide

“I like rice. Rice is good to eat when you are hungry and want 2000 of something” Mitch Heidleberg.

“One must have chaos in oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star.”  I forget who said it but it wasn’t me and it’s acknowldedge in my book Juicy Writing 

“Everybody needs 10% nonsense in their life.”  Anon

“The place where memory meets imagination in the dark.”  Kerouac again.

“Beer. So much more than just a breakfast drink.”  T-shirt saying.

Okay, send me your favorite quote. Welcome to Friday and have a good weekend!  X brigid highway rose

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Another thing that sounds very basic but is really profound is that creative friendships are incredibly important. Ordinary life can be tough, and it can be very ordinary. Connection and inspiration are hugely necessary for writers, musicians, sculptors, painters, architects, film-makers, in fact for all creatives. If you can avoid mixing with boring, negative people -  do so. Too much dreary interaction can be toxic at worst, and is meaningless at best. When you can, make an effort to connect with people with whom you can share ideas, people who nourish you at every level. Yesterday I spent a few hours with my friend, Ro. We swapped actual items: three fabulous pieces of clothing she didn’t want any more for one deco mirror and a photography book that I was sending out into the universe. We shared love lives, girlie talk, and intelligent conversation about mime & clown work we had done, how to get me hooked into internet radio listening, the best food in town, and 7 thousand other fascinating topics. Friendships such as these are blessings. Today, make a play date with your most fun friend!   Go on, you know you want to.

I know, it sounds ultra basic, but words are the building blocks for a writer.  If you want to write you have to love words. The writer’s job is choosing the right words, and putting them in the right order, over and over until they die  Your task for today is to gather some words. Go wide. Collect verbs, adjectives and nouns. Write them down: muddle, hedgehog, lunatic, silvery, jump, kiss, blame, rhinoceros, jazz, alarming, sneaker, pizza, helicopter, sorrow, fingertip. Now start to play, combing your words in interesting ways. Today I am as happy as a silvery lunatic.  Pizza Rhinoceros was his code name but his real name was Ned.  Play and experiment. Get juicy with your words. Let your imaginative combinations create fabulous sentences, songs, poems and perhaps an interesting original story or two. ?

This week I am going to do a blog a day, because as Writer in Residence there are a certain number I have to do, and Sunday is my last day, and I seem to have been a bit slack Quality not quantity is a good thing, but what if they decide not to pay me?  :)  Here we go, with warmest wishes and rose petals on a sunny Spring day.  Books I have read lately that I have loved.  Juno of Tardis, by Fleur Beale. The 10pm Question by Kate de Goldi. Hearbeat and Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech. (Reread actually with great pleasure.) Catherine called Birdy, by Karen Cushman. The Ghost’s Child by Sonya Harnet.  Books I want to read: Tender Morsels by Margot Lanagan. Tales from Outer Suburbia, by Shaun Tan.  What is the best book you have read lately, and why?    xxx love luv lerve from Gypsy Rose Brigid.   (PS, my Italian publishers are reprinting Guitar Highway Rose, which means some nice crunchy euros for moi. Tres bien, or I should say, Bella!!!)

You will be pleased to know that I had a great time at Golden Bay. I taught Juicy Writing to teenagers on Friday. On Saturday I did the same with more teenagers, except this time they were trapped inside adult bodies  :)  One of the writing exercises I give is “What is something that adults should never say to kids?”  I got the usual answers, such as “You are an idiot!” and “No, you can’t!” but I have learned something new. Tom’s answer was “Cool Bananas.”  Oh dear, I say that all the time, well, I did until now :)  Then we played a game where each person in the group tells one lie and two true things about themselves and the rest of the group have to pick the lie.  Natalie said she hated shoes and eats cat biscuits. (I forget her third thing. )  If you think that the cat biscuits bit is the lie, you are wrong. At the adult class my favorite person was Ronnie, who is tiny and has a mass of uber-bright red wild curly hair. She was wearing black, with a fabulous chunky turquoise and purple necklace. Ronnie began one piece of writing, inspired by the thing she was given to write about - a black velvet glove with fake leopard trim - with the words : Ooh La La!  I loved Ronnie and her zesty energy. I don’t know the reason for it, but Ronnie is in a wheelchair. When we talked about the fact that writers need to walk a lot, she said she walks a lot. She calls it a st…roll.  Doncha love it?   We all chose a word for the day. Someone chose Flow, someone else chose Happy, someone chose Blue. Then we shared something we would do that week to help us feel more creative, which Julia Cameron calls an “artistic date.” Derek, a songwriter, said he would go into his shed, which has great acoustics and play his guitar.  I said I would get out all my colorful fabrics and sew, sew, sew. What do you choose, for your artistic date, this week?  It doesn’t have to cost anything, it can be as simple as making a cake, going to the library, or spending an hour reading on your bed.  Go on, have some fun!

I’m feeling rushed today. I have to drive a long way, over an intensely winding hill, to a beautiful place called Golden Bay. I’m teaching Juicy Writing to teenagers one day, adults the next. I’m not feeling 100% juicy myself. A bit weary, to be honest. However, I will give it my all. Travels can be big or small. Where are you travelling to today?  A writer needs to stay fully alive to the five senses as they go about their lives, noticing things. Even a walk to the shop or an *ordinary* day at school can be magical, if you are fully awake to it.  I wonder what I will find on my journey?  I wonder what you will find in your day today? 

If you feel like doing a little writing exercise, pick a quality you would like to have in your life right now, and turn it into a person. The quality I would like to have right now is Serendipity.  Here’s how she would be, if she was a character.

Serendipity wears pale daydream colours. She says Yes rather than No. Her favorite verb is “Flow.”  Her least favorite verb is “Hurry”. Serendipity collects things made of blue glass. She likes spending time with Create and Playful. They hang out at the beach together, drink berry smoothies and build amazing detailed sandcastles.  They love to swim, dance, sing and paint each other’s toenails: green, purple and rose. Serendipity sleeps under a soft quilt patterned with stardust. She’s a very good person to take on a camping trip but don’t make her sit next to Gloom or Rage.

Today another writer came to visit me. I made him a delicious Spring lunch. (Food is important.) We talked about travelling, books, writing, and did a little laughing and gossiping in between. It was joyous, and it reminded me how necessary it is to hang out with kindred spirits, those people who “get you” and share your intellectual territory. My friend and I were both at the same place as writers, even though there is a twenty year age difference between us. My friend lives in Boston and teaches at Harvard, while I live in a small town in the South Island of New Zealand and right now I’m not doing much except idling and moodling. But we are both about to venture into new territory with our writing, and we agreed that in between writing things, there is a time of thinking and wondering, a time of waiting patiently. Even when you feel daunted, you have to trust that when the time is right you will know what it is you want to write, and that you will write it. Knowing that another writer felt like me was most encouraging. So here’s to lovely lunches in Springtime, and to connecting. May a song land on your lunchbox, a poem arrive at sunset, a wild idea be waiting inside your shoe!

Do you talk to yourself?

Do you carry a notebook?

Do you like walking, often combining it with talking to yourself?

Are you more interested in people’s bookshelves than their small talk?

Do you lurk in the library?

Have you been known to send a postcard, just because?

Do you quite often prefer your own company?

Do you have a twisted sense of humour?

Is reading a book while eating your breakfast a necessity of life?

Do people who call magazines books give you the heebie jeebies?

Do you have a morbid fear of being found boring? Do you collect interesting words?

Do you consider dressing imaginatively a prerequisite for happy healthy living?

If you have answered yes to all or most of the above, congratulations! It’s official. You’re a writer. It’s not terminal but it will be with you for life. You now have permission to ask weird questions of strangers. You may call everything single thing you do “research”. You are allowed to hide in your study whenever you like, because - you are a writer.