My research on barristers' clerks is picking up. Counsel magazine has asked me to write an article on clerks. They want 1400 words by July 2. Why not? I think. Then the reality sinks in: this means there have to be all these words looking reasonably coherent on paper in about a week's time.
I have been promising myself that I would say no to requests, but I don't. I'm realising that there is a similarity between me and barristers. According to the clerks barristers are always anxious about where the next bit of work will come from and when. It doesn't seem to matter how eminent they are, they're nervous.
I'm the same about writing. If no one asks me then I'm lost in the wilderness, forgotten, adrift, never to publish again. It's stupid and so when I get asked for a chapter or an article for about a millisecond I will consider saying no, then I switch into normal mode and say, of course, yes.
I have been promising myself that I would say no to requests, but I don't. I'm realising that there is a similarity between me and barristers. According to the clerks barristers are always anxious about where the next bit of work will come from and when. It doesn't seem to matter how eminent they are, they're nervous.
I'm the same about writing. If no one asks me then I'm lost in the wilderness, forgotten, adrift, never to publish again. It's stupid and so when I get asked for a chapter or an article for about a millisecond I will consider saying no, then I switch into normal mode and say, of course, yes.
Comments
It's impossible to know what to turn down, so inevitably I end up accepting all of it.
Martin
(www.martingeorge.org)
(www.conflictoflaws.net)
PS: thanks for linking to my blog!