Tuesday, April 2, 2013

what's to love: the uniform

What's to love about writing? This is kind of a corollary to yesterday's, but it's not to be underestimated either:

You get to pick your work clothes.

If you want to work in your pajamas, go for it. If you want, you can wear a writing hat, like Josephine March, or a three-piece suit, or even, ahem, leave it all off and write completely naked.

(Does this actually work for anyone?? The single time I tried it--at the suggestion of one of those crazier release your creativity!! books--I only felt 500 times more uncomfortable than I already did, and my writing didn't get better. My sentences sounded panicked, and like they would really like a sweatshirt, please.)

It's whatever works for you. You can write in whatever clothes (or lack thereof) that you choose.

My favorite uniform lately has been some well-worn yoga pants and an oversized top. I'm totally comfortable, and can either see it as clothes for a workout, for brewing some sweat, or clothes for relaxing, for easing into those longer paragraphs. Because any given writing day, both can be true, right?

I take that freedom for granted too often, but, seriously, isn't it nice? I'd probably melt away if I had to be flawlessly presentable every day, and have a manicure and dozens of shoes and figure out how to, I don't know, coordinate things. Shoot. Even the thought of doing my hair every morning sounds exhausting...

I'd rather be in bed late, like this morning, with a book of poems, another of essays, and a bulky Mark Twain collection.

Who needs hair spray??

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