To Do or Not To Do

"It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing." -Gertrude Stein

This quote goes perfectly with my thoughts as of late. This is exactly what it takes to be a writer.

Now of course trying to be a writer is not the same as trying to be a genius. After all, not all geniuses are writers and certainly all writers are not geniuses. Yet that is neither here nor there.

There have been numerous occasions when I have been standing around with a thoughtful look on my face (one I am told makes it look like I am mad or dead or whatever it is that I do not remember at the moment) and trying to think, and maybe even partially succeeding, but there are a great many more when I am simply doing nothing. I find that lately I hardly do nothing at all and thus my writing suffers. It is amazing how much doing nothing time it takes to be a writer.

Yet doing nothing takes a great skill. There are many people in the world who do nothing accidentally, but such doing of nothing generally results in nothing, as they do not know what to do with it. Of course in all likelihood they are not really doing nothing. It is not so easy a matter as one might suppose to really do nothing, not to worry about things about to happen, not to fret at the passage of time, not to drop into a state of complacency, nor anything else (save vital life functions of course).

However, it is also hard to find time to do nothing...

I cannot think of a single day this week I shall be able to really and properly do nothing, but perhaps I may be able to squeeze in an hour or two. It might be sufficient. Of course the quality and quantity of said time is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the writing that results from it. Thus the lamentable state of my writing currently.