I stumbled upon this Asylum article via the ever-excellent Practicing Writing (who in turn credits Nextbook for the find): Gary Shtyengart (Absurdistan) offers sage wisdom on being a writer:
Take a lot of Xanax in the morning to really calm the hell down. Try to wake up no later than 11. Work from 11:30 to 4:30, then go see the shrink, then meet some friends for drinks. Find a good bar where everyone knows your name and you can get a nice buyback. Try to relax. This is the major problem. Writing is both boring and stressful, it’s the worst combination. Sometimes I go to the gym, but it’s very hard to lift things there, because they’re so heavy.
Oh, this is hilarious! But I disagree heartily that writing is boring and stressful — stressful, oh yes indeed, but boring?!? It’s the least boring thing I know how to do, and isn’t that precisely what *makes* it so stressful?
Also, um, I’m tired of people flippantly endorsing the overmedication of America.
Okay. Now I’m getting off my soapbox(es). I did really think this was funny. Promise.
I had the same reaction, Preeta — that this was hilarious but kind of inaccurate — and I questioned the “stressful,” too. If the writing is going well, I think it’s neither stressful nor boring. If it’s going badly and you’re just staring at a blinking cursor for an hour… OK, I’ll give him that.