No, it isn’t just a Beastie Boys song.
Whether you like it or not, life will always try to sabotage creative works. Just as soon as you sit down to write, the phone rings, the dog has an accident, or the washing machine begins to spew suds all over your laundry room. It feels like the whole universe is plotting against you to prevent you from writing. That’s just how it is. No use complaining or trying to prevent it. It is an unstoppable force of nature. The only thing to do to save your sanity is to recognize it and accept it.
For me, sabotage comes in various forms.
Self Sabotage: I sabotage myself accidentally on purpose.
Example: I sit down at my computer to write. First, I decide to check my emails. Then I will start to write, or so I tell myself. An hour later, I am trying to beat my high score on the Phineas and Ferb game on the Disney Channel website.
Familial Sabotage: My lovely family members also work as saboteurs on the side. They don’t do it on purpose, but somehow, they have an impeccable ability to interrupt me at the exact time I am just about to reach my writer’s climax.
Example: I love my husband to death. He is very supportive of my writing. But for a week straight, he somehow always interrupted me every time I sat down to write. During my lunch break, as soon as the pen hit paper, he would call my cell. When I finally managed to escape to my writer’s office in the basement, fire up the computer, and start typing, the inevitable sound of his footsteps would thunder through the basement not five minutes later, right on time.
Furry Family Members Sabotage: My dog’s thought process: “Oh, she has the computer in her lap and looks all comfy on the couch. Time to piss.”
Example: My dog, Tama, is as annoying as he is cute. I could be up and about the house for a whole hour, offering him a chance to go outside every fifteen minutes or so. Did he take those ample chances to do his duty? Hell no! But without fail, the second I sit down with the computer to start writing, he is at the door giving me the you-better-get-moving-or-your-carpet-will-become-a-nice-shade-of-yellow look.
Technological Sabotage: Whether it is the dryer, the washing machine, the computer, or the entire electrical grid, if something can go wrong, it will.
Example: I get home from work, all revved up and ready to write, only to discover my water heater had finally given up the ghost, but not before flooding my entire basement. Talk about raining on my writing parade.
So these are a few examples I could think of. Like I said before, there is no use in trying to avoid it or fight it. Shit happens. Grab a shovel. Take care of it. Then write and pray the universe will give you more time before sending shit your way again.
C. L. Parson
C. L. Parson 