I recently discovered a musician who goes by the stage name
Just Jack. I love this guy, even if he doesn’t have the most sophisticated
lyrics I’ve ever heard. One of my favorite songs of his is “Writer’s Block.”
The opening lyrics go like this: “I’ve got this writer’s block. It comes as
quite a shock. And now I’m stuck between a hard place and the biggest rock.”
That’s a very accurate description of what I’ve been going
through since early August. I have no idea what initially knocked me off my
game but I haven’t had much luck in getting back into it. As you can well read,
I’ve been keeping up with my blog fine. However, my creative writing
juices just aren’t flowing these days.
I have three novels – two of which that are about two-thirds
done & one that is about one-fourth done – that are sitting here on my
computer. I find myself incapable of finishing any of them. I’ll sit down at my
computer, open one, and sit there staring at it, uncertain how to move
forward.
In an attempt to encourage myself to do something – anything – I bought some spiral-bound
notebooks and started scratching out some ideas longhand. That’s been working
to some extent. I’ve been writing, at least. The only problem is that I keep
working on new stuff. So far, I’ve started three new novels, two of which
I’m not even sure where they’re going. That’s something I’ve been trying to
avoid since I started focusing on my writing a few years ago. I want to have a
good idea of where a story is going before I expend energy on it.
It’s safe to say that I spent a lot of September feeling
frustrated with myself. I really want to finish a fourth novel. I don’t know
what’s stopping me. I feel like I’m probably psyching myself out somehow. I’m
just not sure how. I need a Dr. Phil in my life, someone to tell me really
obvious things until I have an epiphany.
That was most of September for me – a weird love/hate dance
with my writing. Oh, and soccer. Lots and lots of soccer. I don’t talk about my
love for soccer very much on my blog because I don’t want to bore you all to
tears, but I really love it a lot. It looks like my team is set to make the
play offs this year for the first time since they went major league, so I’m
psyched! As for the national stage, I think we all know what the big news was
that rounded out September. I have absolutely nothing of value to add to that
topic, as I think pretty much all politicians are scumbags.
Anyway, that was September 2013 and those were the things on my mind. If you're stopping by to read, why don't you tell me what's been on yours?
What about Earl Blumenaur? I still love him.
ReplyDeleteI'm wanting to say obvious things until you have an epiphany, but I need to walk out the door for yoga soon. So you might have to say the obvious things to yourself. Oh! Maybe there is an obvious things generator on the internet?
September was about getting my life back from the start of school for me. It's nearly back, thank goodness. I like my life and get resentful when I have to give things up.
Go (your soccer team)!
I don't know enough about Earl these days, but he always seemed like one of the few politicians who are okay. My favorite is Bill Bradbury. Met him a few times; really nice guy.
ReplyDeleteThe other night I awoke randomly at about 4 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep right away. As I lay in bed wishing for sleep, I think I figured out how to fix the particular novel that's been causing the hang up. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to work on it yet, but I think I'll be back on track soon anyway.
Glad your life is getting back to normal!