Cogburn on aging and writing

He has SOME GOOD POINTS here. (Note: I’m not sending you there to read about how Jon’s working me into his APA paper; that’s simply how I happened to run across his post.)

Something in the air this summer seems to be giving people a harder time working than usual. Around 80% of my friends have been complaining about an unproductive summer, including three of the most productive writers I know.

Jon outlines his own problems in that post. For each of my friends they are different. I’d say my own remaining (or even increasing) problems are these:

1. Saying yes to too many things, at a time when there are more opportunities than there used to be. I never used to understand how certain people in the profession could be such bums as not to respond to mail, but I’m starting to get a taste of why. Sometimes you simply forget, believe it or not. Get to a certain volume of mail, and you will start to forget to respond to a certain percentage of it, including some very nice mail. I’m understanding now why people actually need secretaries, and that it’s not just a frivolous ornament to have someone keeping things organized for you.

2. Days start to feel shorter than they used to. Even five years ago it often felt like a day was a magic bag into which I could stuff an insane number of accomplishments. Of course, one could never do that every day, and with age you pay a much bigger price for such days in terms of recovery time. So at the moment, I’m inclined to endorse Jon’s slow-and-steady tortoise approach, which is all the more relevant for those with kids (an issue I don’t have at this point).

Still, I’ve never had so many friends way behind where they want to be as the end of the summer approaches. There must be some sort of general torpor in the air.