Did I ever introduce you to Millie the Mad Cat?
She of the bitey-snappy-teeth and the rendy-slashy-claws?
Today's classic quote from Advice to Writers made me smile and think about her.
Acquire a Cat
If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially on some piece of writing or paperwork, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work…the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle under the desk lamp. The light from a lamp…gives the cat great satisfaction. The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impeded your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, and very mysterious.
MURIEL SPARK
She has been very poorly recently, and I missed her whilst she was in hospital. I missed the thinking time I have when she lays across my hands so I can't type anything. Because---unlike Muriel Sparks serene cat, settled under her desk lamp---for Millie, typing is FORBIDDEN and only to be undertaken if you are in the mood for a new lot of bites and slashes.
She is home again now, and I am writing properly again. Thinking time is, after all, essential for writing. Don't you think?
