Friday, November 16, 2012

Bleargh


I'm not doing NaNo this year, for a variety of reasons.  But this is the first time in a very, very long time I've not taken part, and I miss it.  I feel...itchy, somehow. It's like...some beautifully apt simile I would come up with if I wasn't completely lacking in words of any kind.  I want to write *something*.  I'd write at least a short story if I could.  But my words are all gone.

I miss most the physical act: scribbling away with a pen or pencil or banging on the typewriter and seeing and feeling the pages fill up.  But I got nothing.  I can't even seem to manage poems lately.  I have one single line rattling around in the hollow void of my noggin, but it doesn't tie to anything at all, AND it's about a sunset, which is terribly hackneyed as poetic subjects go.

I've tried free-writing, just writing anything and everything that pops into my head or writing about writing, and even that petered out.

And now I'm writing about writing about writing.  I make me cry.

At least there's turkey in my near future!  And I don't seem to be having the same issues with music.  So there's that.

6 comments:

speculator said...

Well, for what it's worth, there's much to be said for taking a breather. Writing with continuous intensity can be exhausting- and that may not be why many of us write.
Enjoy that turkey dinner. Art Buchwald once said that Thanksgiving is the occasion on which Americans feast as heartily as the French! Voilà!

The ideas will surely come to you. Have no doubt.

Anonymous said...

Don't sweat it. Enjoy your music. Enjoy the turkey dinner (emphasis on the pies). The words will come when you are ready for them.

Or do what I do when I need the act of writing. Find something of no consequence that captures your thoughts, even if just for a day. Or maybe it just pisses you off. Doesn't even have to be complete. I just wrote, by hand, a few pages of notes on the origin of music and how small instrumental groups are better/closer to the appeal of music than large orchestras which are just loud. It may never be finished but at least I got some words on paper. Couldn't hurt.

Jeff The Bear

Bill M said...

Sometimes just getting lost in the music will bring fresh new words to mind and then to paper.

Relax.

Enjoy the holiday.

Then when least expected and words start to flow, you may write for hours straight.

Rob Bowker said...

Aaaargh! The dreaded block. I sometimes type what people are saying and see where it takes me. Never far, of course. I don't type fast enough. But it takes away the burden of originating content oneself and that can be cathartic.

Rob Bowker said...

Look at me, giving advice. It is well-meant if not especially useful.

Elizabeth H. said...

On the contrary, all advice is welcome and helpful! Thanks for the encouragement, all. If nothing else, I've managed to ease back into being more consistent with my journal over the last few weeks. This is mostly because very little has happened over the last few weeks and therefore I have time...but nothing much to write about. So it ends up being mostly whining and daydreaming. But it's something. And I've had the fountain pens out, which means I can write ridiculously long treatises on what pens and inks I'm using at any given moment...