Essay two in my big book of essays I am reading is about "The Master-Slave Relationship" by Victoria Nelson. What is that? It's the war between your conscious and your unconscious. For example: Your conscious says I should: diet, exercise, call home, write 20 pages a day. Meanwhile you: troll the Internet, watch a movie, make cookies, play on face book. This is because your unconscious says - nope-ain't gonna do what the conscious wants. Why? Because I don't want to! And guess what? You might think your conscious is the master, but if the unconscious doesn't want to play along as slave- it doesn't.
This is a fabulous article. I struggled with this the last three weeks on a set of revisions I told myself I could knock out in a day or two- instead I wrote a 50 page partial for another book; I researched a new genre; I changed the opening of an old book to fit the new genre.... all the while knowing I needed to knock out those revisions- and wondering why I couldn't seem to get them done. LOL.
One of the techniques she lists to get around the master/slave problem is to simple make the conscious decision to NOT do what you are supposed to do for a day, two days, a week. This made me laugh. Because after three weeks of struggle I finally gave myself permission to start a new project and when I sat down- yep- my brain decided to do the revisions instead and I knocked them right out. (Me, laughing at myself and shaking my head.)
Fun stuff- so, if you find yourself frustrated by your own inability to get where you want to be- try giving yourself a break. See what happens. Cheers!
Oh, I like that idea. I definitely think I'll try it. Thank you, Nancy.
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