OH NO, WRITER'S BLOCK... or is it Spring!
Since my last entry just a couple of days ago, I've experienced
a sudden surge of "block," that annoying desire to NOT write, just
when I was hoping to accomplish something.
I sat down to do some serious plot work on my next project, and
suddenly found myself struggling with what usually comes fairly
easily. One thing I've learned with writing is you can't force it
out. It has to flow, or you might as well forget it. The urge is
there to work on it, but for some reason the fountain of
creativity is barely seeping.
So now what? I'm not going to worry about it, that's
what. It's Spring, and there's plenty of manual labor waiting for
me just outside the door. There's also a bathtub full of baby
chicks and a hen house that needs cleaning out. Sticks in the yard
have to be removed before we start up the lawn mowers, and in a
couple of weeks we'll be disc-ing the garden for planting.
I was so "into" my winter schedule for writing... but it seems I'm
being nudged on to the new season. There will still be time for
writing. I know that while I'm at work on all those
spring-cleaning projects, my mind will begin working on those
creative seeds of thought. Thinking is important in
preparation for actual writing. The pieces need to be processed
mentally before anything goes down on paper.
In the meantime, there's plenty of reading to do, which always
stimulates writing. The phase will pass and once again characters
and scenes and conflicts will sail off the paper at the end of my
pen. Writer's block is kind of like depression. It's awful when
you've got it, but as long as you realize it's only temporary,
you can get through it.
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