“A waste of time” or the most important day of this script?

You get up in the morning, open your computer. It’s 8 o’clock, but it’s not too early, since you plan to proceed a lot today.

You are in a very good mode since you are going to start writing today the script of your life. In few minutes, flood of words and dialogues will flow from the keyboard to the screen.

It is a script that has never been written before, and the world is going to stand astonished in front the deep insights about life. It’s going to be one of these movies where the critics adore and at the same time long lines of audience are crowding in front of cinema theater’s box offices, where distributers keep smiling. Of course, in your interviews to the press, you will tell that “I was only trying to write my truth, fame and economic success were not important, I have never imagined it is going to be such a successful movie.”

You look at the watch, surprised to realize that it is 10:10. Well you have been carried away a little bit, that might happen, however, now you will start writing and in few minutes, flood of words and dialogues will flow from the keyboard to the screen.

At 11:22 you find out that you have written one sentence which sounds a cliché, you try to find better wording, but at 12:40 you feel a slight hunger. In this case, it is recommended to eat something, and since there is nothing in the fridge, you prepare something very small… at 2:11 you feel tiered from the heavy lunch. You decide that going down to the coffee shop is the best way to refresh, after that, you will return to the computer and the flood will flow from the keyboard to the screen.

After the coffee, you realize this is not your day and it’s better to do something useful, like watching a good movie that will help you understand what good movies are made from. Tomorrow will be a new day, you will get up, sit in front… flood… flow… screen.

What is that? What is the meaning of this day? While you were staring, builders built buildings, farmers harvested wheat, the baker backed bread and the truck driver brought it to the supermarket, are you the only lazy and not useful person around?

The amazing thing is that this day might be a waste of time but also the most important day in this project, because in the middle of the movie (an awful movie, by the way) this vision strikes you, and you understand how you should tell your story.

However, what is “a waste of time” in creative work?

Author Amos Oz said once that he rather see his work as salesclerk running a store. He opens the store in the morning and waits for clients. Sometimes there are no clients, but it doesn’t mean the salesclerk is not doing his job. Other imageries picture the creative process as nesting and incubate. Although all these imageries seems passive, they are not. There is a lot of activity in order to bring clients to your store or handling the eggs until it hatched.

For many years, I was very frustrated with days like these and tried to avoid them. I can say that many days, which seems to be waste of time, are not, but it will be a mistake to believe there is no such a thing like wasted time in creative work. We should not surrender to a day like this. I found out that we should respect our blocks and try to understand what they are trying to tell us. Understanding our creativity can make our writing easier and might improve it. A waste of time becomes a valuable time when we know how to use it.

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