"I was trying to write a book that simply would not come. I did my daily five hundred words, but the characters never began to live. So much in writing depends on the superficiality of one's days. One may be preoccupied with shopping and income tax returns and chance conversations, but the stream of the unconscious continues to flow undisturbed, solving problems, planning ahead: one sits down sterile and dispirited at the desk, and suddenly the words come as though from the air: the situations that seemed blocked in a hopeless passe move forward: the work has been done while one slept or shopped or talked with friends."
--The End of the Affair, Graham Greene
1 comment:
this is a brillant observation! the last couple weeks i've been working on 3 new articles.
even when i sleep, i have "the stream of the unconscious" flowing in the background. at work i have a pad of paper nearby because new ideas, thoughts or clearing of cognitive roadblocks happens seemingly out of the blue while doing the superficial work of the day.
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