In his book on writing, Word Work, Bruce Holland Rogers talks about two different types of people/writers: Hunters and Farmers.
Hunters (who may also, Rogers says, have a touch of ADD) "are distractable, risk-taking, and restless. We may be impulsive or irritable. Our moods shift often and (to others and ourselves) mysteriously. We likely have many projects going at once, but we may finish only the ones that someone makes us finish. We change our plans all the time. What we were enthusiastic about last week isn't so interesting now because we're onto something better."
Farmers "have it together. They find it easy to do one thing at a time.... Farmers know where their tools are. They plan a project, take it step by step, and clean up when they're done. Farmer emotions have a lot to do with what's going on right in front of them at the moment. When you have a conversation with a Farmer, she is right there with you, hearing every word you say."
Rogers expounds on both Hunters and Farmers, offering suggestions to those who want to balance their Hunter/Farmer natures.
I'd say I definitely lean more toward the Hunter camp, maybe 75% Hunter, 25% Farmer. Looking at my "Current Stories" file, I have fourteen stories I've started and not finished. Yet on the Farmer side, I told myself this week that I would send one of those stories out by Friday. (It's actually going out today.) Hunting...farming...hunting...farming... Which are you?
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From the Upcoming Books I Must Have department, this from Jeff Ford.
1 comment:
I'd like to be more of a farmer--and I was for most last of year with the novel--but my track record indicates a severe case of hunter. More than a dozen incomplete stories sit together on my hard drive making mock of me. To my credit, though, I have not started a new story while I've been writing the Flying Dutchman story. (Which is not to say I've not made a few notes here and there for potential projects, but I've not written a word of prose for them.)
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