I Should Be Writing

If I ran a game store I might play the song I Should Be Writing by John Anealio, it's iffy.

Songwriter John Anealio finds his mind wandering when it comes time to write lyrics. It is oft summoned by the siren call of the internet or of the TARDIS materializing on BBC America. At some point we've all sat down to write - maybe it's a school assignment, maybe it's art, or maybe it's a post on a very quiet blog. And at some point we've all experienced what John does: our minds wanting to focus on something - anything - other than writing. I Should Be Writing is a gentle self-scolding for those times. If I ran a game store I would strongly consider playing this song because I know that many of the patrons have creative pursuits, be they GMs or comic book authors or bardic poets. It's iffy for me because the song is more about the creative process and no so much about gaming or monsters or pop culture, but I really believe that my fictional customers would take to the song.

I Should Be Writing is the theme song to a podcast of the same name and it was specially commissioned by the podcast's host, Mur Lafferty, for that purpose. The song was also released on John Anealio's 2010 EP, NaNoWriMo, which is his ode to National Novel Writing Month. The EP also has an acoustic version of the song, titled I Should Be Writing (Acoustic). If I ran a game store I would play the electronic version. The difference is instrumental only, with both songs being gentle rock tunes. John plays guitar on both versions, but the electronic version also has him playing synthesizer and drum machine.

From John Anealio's Bandcamp page:

"I Should Be Writing" is dedicated to everyone who writes. Whether you write novels, articles, blog posts, comics, or songs, I think everyone has occasions when they doubt what they are doing or are easily distracted. Hopefully this song will help.

I Should Be Writing on Bandcamp



I Should Be Writing lyrics

I work eight hours
Steaming milk and sweeping floors
Home and take a shower
Steam the coffee from my pores

Sit at my computer
And I open Firefox
Play a first person shooter
And then I open Google Docs

But there is nothing there
I'll guess I'll get to work

But I should be writing
I should be working on my craft
I should be writing
I should be submitting my next draft
But I'm sitting home watching Doctor Who

Stare at Google Reader
And I read a how-to blog
You've got to dig much deeper
To write convincing dialogue

So I search for inspiration
Deep within the iTunes store
But there's no application
That will help me to ignore

The fact that Doctor Who is on TV tonight

But I should be writing
I should be working on my craft
I should be writing
I should be submitting my next draft
But I'm sitting home watching Doctor Who

Why do I do this to myself?
Why can't I relax?
I want to see my name up on that shelf
On the spine of a paperback
A paperback

But I should be writing
I should be working on my craft
I should be writing
I should be submitting my next draft
But I'm sitting home watching Doctor Who
I'm sitting home watching Doctor Who