I plead with Scriobhnarin, my writing muse, for one whit of enlightenment and realize that the last time I wrote was at the conference when I ploughed out 1500 words at one sitting. Maybe Scriobhnarin is exhausted, she is one age with me after all.
Be patient, they tell me, all will be well.
A couple of weeks now, I answer. And not a sparkle of concern do I show for the characters that lie languishing, wordless, silent, mute, crawling away from me defiantly.
It would be funny if it was happening to anyone else, right?
But it is happening to me.
So I am shutting down for the day, it is a denim day here at the edge of the Atlantic and I have chores to do in town. But I will take the camera and see what presents itself to the lens and maybe something will bounce off my brain and on to the page.
Muses are fickle creatures and come at their own whim. When it comes to that, they are a bit like cats. I think you have to look in another direction and pretend you don't want them to show up at all. Just ignore their far away presence. You don't need them, right? xox
ReplyDeleteRest...
ReplyDeleteWhat do the veterans say? Something to the effect that you should write something - anything - every day. Doesn't matter whether it's good or bad, just keep writing and sooner or later the quality stuff will emerge. Well, so they say.
ReplyDeleteA day of knitting and free thinking is my prescription for you. Tell your brain that don't any ideas today thank you and like a spoilt child it will busy your fingers at the speed of light.
ReplyDeleteShutting down on one of your wonderful Denim Days seems like the right decision. You'll probably meet your muse gazing out into the deep blue, standing right beside you, mute but present.
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ReplyDeleteA rest is as good as a change WWW.Heck I have had writers block for years ever since I typed the opening sentence of my great Canadian novel...."Once upon a time"
Oh ya the wife and I keep a few spiders and their webs above our patio in the summer. We like them. Our kids think we are crazy.:)
Not being a writer myself, I don't know anything about it. But I hope your muse returns rested and ready to help soon!
ReplyDeleteI started a new novel several months ago, and three chapters are sitting in my file.
ReplyDeleteI stopped because I couldn't figure out the mechanism of the central plot twist - part laziness, part bewilderment, so I wrote several sonnets, and a poem about the hurricane, and a "You are there" news story about the "Great September Gale" of 1821, which was the last storm of this type to hit the Northeast, and I went to Georgia for a week to visit my son, and now I think I'm ready to go back to the novel, and who knows why this happens, or whether the chain of activity is benevolent or simply avoidance therapy, and then I started a wordhoard of difficult words we all think we know the meaning of, and then...
Irene:
ReplyDeleteI'm following your advice rather well so far but keep looking over my shoulder because, you know, maybe.....
XO
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Nick:
ReplyDeleteAnd it can be such rubbish and maybe I shouldn't judge it....:)
XO
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GM:
ReplyDeleteI've tossed the knitting, I'm in some mood, let me tell ya!
XO
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T:
ReplyDeleteI think I've gotten really uptight in the last wee while, wearing the world like a strait jacket.
XO
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GFB:
ReplyDeleteWhat????
Whatever happened to "It was a dark and stormy night" huh?
Glad that Charlotte's cousins are in safe hands with you.
XO
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SAW:
ReplyDeleteYeah, me too....
XO
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Marc:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good laugh, I needed that!
I do love the idea of a word hoard, we should get our good friend Stan rolling with that one!
XO
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I have enough trouble watching the hummingbirds on the feeder I put six inches outside my writing window. If there was a muse in the room too I'd never get anything done.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'd do is pick one thing to work on, figure out what's missing (plot point, shallow character), and go take a shower. For some reason I can write anything in the shower. It's so reliable that I always look over what I'm working on just before I suds up.
WWW, the muse can be fickle, as Irene says. Don't fret about it. Take a break, or keep at it anyway -- whatever approach feels right. Trust your intuition on it.
ReplyDeleteAs it happens I have a wonderful word hoard (not mine) coming up next on the blog.
Murr:
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I imagine you in the shower with a soggy manuscript and words falling all over the page. But not in a good way....
XO
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Stan:
ReplyDeleteI just knew Marc and I could rely on you to stock up the pantry!
XO
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Well, blogging keeps me writing every day, but longer work eludes me. So I sympathize.
ReplyDeleteMe too. I write once a week on my blog to keep things going, but the novel is moving along slowly. Next step: Apply for a writing residency. You spend a month alone, at a place that encourages your art...and that's all you do, all day, every day. Otherwise, at home you start cleaning closets or baking when the going gets tough.
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