No excuses

A writer never has an excuse for not working.

John Mortimer, Where There's a Will

I developed an ulcer and other digestive problems during my years as a newspaper reporter and editorial writer. Even weekends were not free from worry. Then I became a copy editor, trying to improve the work of other writers, and I rested more easily. My work never went home with me.

John Mortimer

So I know very well what John Mortimer, a lawyer and an author, is talking about in the comment quoted above. Writers can always work. No excuses. A pen and paper are almost always nearby. Writers can carry notebooks when they travel. Writing can be done in the mind, as well, and even in dreams. Some of my best ideas still come to me in the shower.

And so writers have no excuse for not working. Ever.

And this, Mortimer observes, can lead to guilt. "It's true that guilt follows a writer wherever he goes, an unnecessarily faithful dog, always yapping at his heels," he says. Get to work. Get to work. Get to work. The yapping goes on and on.

Writers experiencing writer's block must feel doubly guilty. Their ideas won't come no matter how hard they try to produce something worthwhile.