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The Smithylad/Crawfish
Stardust Weblog
11-Jun-2005
Sometimes you're Content, Sometimes you're Admin.
That's content as in material, not as in happiness.
Sometimes I'm in a frame of mind to improve my website, or to go through files and clear things out. If that's the case, there's no way I can knuckle down to any writing. It just doesn't happen. If I'm updating the website, for example, there's a strong likelihood that I will do something practical around the house in the same timeframe, which suggests that this is about updating the infrastructure I live among, and I can lump those tasks together as some sort of conglomerated uber-task of getting my life sorted out. That's the time I pay bills, shuffle money about online, that sort of thing.
Other times, I am in mood to work on a piece of writing, and I'll go at it with some vigour and can't be prised away to do anything around the house, except maybe putting in some washing or washing-up, which act as a little bit of literary distance to the thing I am working on, which means I can come back to it with fresh eyes (and clean clothes). I can't organise myself at that point, I'm stuck in whatever mess is around me. I suppose it's possible to say at those times I have my creative head on, a ditzy buffoon that translates ideas onto paper but which couldn't dream of cleaning the toilet.
I actually enjoy this division of labour, the compartmentalisation of my life into infrastructure and creativity. It means I get more done, as I am not trying to do too many things at once. (It's not quite as distinct a division as I have written here, but it's not far off). I know it frustrates my wife, as she manages to put the two together when organising home improvements, for example, whereas I can't do both the practical side (calling in plumbers etc) and the design side (the bath could go there, with the door opening outward etc) at the same time.
For her, the design side is an accumulation of ideas from her own head, from magazines, from shops, which are then filtered through the practicalities of the room we are decorating and the money we have available to us. For me, it's a case of the practical, (we need this, that and the other in there, and at the moment what we have doesn't fulfil the function), the financial, (it's going to have to wait next year because we can't afford it now), the possibilities of the lay-out of the room, and then finally the picking out and purchasing of furniture that would do the job. An altogether different approach, much more prosaic, much less creative, and probably in the end much less satisfying.
Probably less satisfying because thankfully we've never actually done it my way. While I am away in my head, dreaming, writing in the office, she's getting her plans together and getting quotes, and I'm left behind in the planning stakes. She has a million more ideas than me, because she's given it much more thought than me, and so she railroads everything I suggest because she's already thought of it and dismissed it as a) impractical and b) boring.
It drives her nuts that I don't give it enough attention, but we both benefit because she gets her way, and the room ends up looking so much more attractive than if I had designed it.
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