I Need Boots to Wade Through This
If I make it through this next month, it's going to be a miracle.
I've been watching my site stats and comments inch steadily downward since I returned last month from my trip to Los Angeles. I'm suffering from a bad case of writer's block, and I just don't feel that I have anything interesting or witty to say. Many of my fellow bloggers have written about similar funks of late; it's comforting to know that I'm not alone, but it's still very frustrating.
Last night, after disappointing my good friend Mrs. Harridan* (I'll let her tell the story if she wants to, although it was due partly to my attempts to return phone calls to TWO cooter doctors who had left me messages at home regarding my upcoming infertility surgery despite having my cell number, and partly due to my own stupidity, and partly due to the idiosyncracies of mass transit), as well as disappointing her husband and disappointing my husband, I arrived home, feeling terribly. Ty and I then attempted to raise our new lighting fixture to a more suitable height. About 45 sweaty, cursed minutes later, we attempted to turn it on, only to find that the light was out, as were the lights in about 60% of our apartment, and our phones, and our computers, and our alarm clocks. Trips to the circuit-breaker box proved fruitless.
Multiple phone calls and one frantic night later, the electrician arrived to fix our mess. It turns out that a sharp edge on the fixture had cut a wire, which had caused a short in the system. After a good length of time of holding our breath, lest our fixture fall and smash to pieces, as well as a hurried trip to the hardware store, the problem was fixed.
While I held the ladder for Ty last night, I calmed myself by mentally drafting the foreword to a book that I've been thinking of writing for a while. I've been thinking of writing many books for a while, but this one is the most personal and has been the hardest to get started. This morning, on a whim, and after passing THREE EXTRAORDINARILY PREGNANT WOMEN and A NURSERY-SCHOOL FIELD TRIP'S WORTH OF ADORABLE CHILDREN, I stopped at a bookstore and purchased two books about writing and publishing.
If I can really get serious, and get myself launched with this project, as a way of pulling myself out of all this mess, it will be worth it.
If you are a writer, do you ever find inspiration in shitty circumstances?
*Again, I am so, so sorry.
I've been watching my site stats and comments inch steadily downward since I returned last month from my trip to Los Angeles. I'm suffering from a bad case of writer's block, and I just don't feel that I have anything interesting or witty to say. Many of my fellow bloggers have written about similar funks of late; it's comforting to know that I'm not alone, but it's still very frustrating.
Last night, after disappointing my good friend Mrs. Harridan* (I'll let her tell the story if she wants to, although it was due partly to my attempts to return phone calls to TWO cooter doctors who had left me messages at home regarding my upcoming infertility surgery despite having my cell number, and partly due to my own stupidity, and partly due to the idiosyncracies of mass transit), as well as disappointing her husband and disappointing my husband, I arrived home, feeling terribly. Ty and I then attempted to raise our new lighting fixture to a more suitable height. About 45 sweaty, cursed minutes later, we attempted to turn it on, only to find that the light was out, as were the lights in about 60% of our apartment, and our phones, and our computers, and our alarm clocks. Trips to the circuit-breaker box proved fruitless.
Multiple phone calls and one frantic night later, the electrician arrived to fix our mess. It turns out that a sharp edge on the fixture had cut a wire, which had caused a short in the system. After a good length of time of holding our breath, lest our fixture fall and smash to pieces, as well as a hurried trip to the hardware store, the problem was fixed.
While I held the ladder for Ty last night, I calmed myself by mentally drafting the foreword to a book that I've been thinking of writing for a while. I've been thinking of writing many books for a while, but this one is the most personal and has been the hardest to get started. This morning, on a whim, and after passing THREE EXTRAORDINARILY PREGNANT WOMEN and A NURSERY-SCHOOL FIELD TRIP'S WORTH OF ADORABLE CHILDREN, I stopped at a bookstore and purchased two books about writing and publishing.
If I can really get serious, and get myself launched with this project, as a way of pulling myself out of all this mess, it will be worth it.
If you are a writer, do you ever find inspiration in shitty circumstances?
*Again, I am so, so sorry.
Copyright 2005-2010 by Arabella and Trattoria Breve. All rights reserved. 11:25 AM
12 Comments:
I seem to be of the Bukowski school of writing, which is to say I find inspiration in shitty circumstances AND booze. You think I am joking, but I am not.
I'm sorry you're having a hard time. I KNOW things are going to get better for you soon.
Girl, please! SO not your fault. And I *will* tell the story over at my blog, because it's the only thing I can write ... my writer's block/funk is in high gear these days.
May I ask what is the subject matter of the book you want to write? Or will all be revealed in the fullness of time? :)
Girl, please! SO not your fault. And I *will* tell the story over at my blog, because it's the only thing I can write ... my writer's block/funk is in high gear these days.
May I ask what is the subject matter of the book you want to write? Or will all be revealed in the fullness of time? :)
Then you have to get on the Writin Wednesday bandwagon. Of two. We'll be a bandwagon of two.
I hate so much when I give someone my cell number, because I want an answer right away and they call my home instead and leave a long message that gets cut off by our cheap machine. I hate that a lot.
Yes, I've noticed we've all started to wane a little with the productivity and cleverivity. Nobody will be hurt if you want to cut back to M/W/F posting. Well, I won't be hurt, at least. Because that's what I did and I don't want to be all alone in my cutting back.
(I'm buying my ticket to blogfest tomorrow!)
I do find inspiration in shitty situations -- literally and otherwise. Sometimes I can't think of a single thing to write and then all of a sudden it just hits me. Pow! I was like that after my mom died...couldn't write for, well, years. Then all of a sudden, one day, I wanted to write. Urgently. And now here I am. Blogging.
So sorry to hear of the rough patch. But sometimes that leads to the best inspiration to write.
I'm with you on the writers' block lately. I'm starting to panic because I have to get cracking on the novel revisions requested by my editor but I have no idea how to change things to make certain scenes more to her liking. I've also got second book angst ALREADY. I thought that once I got this far things would be easier. Ha.
Oh shut up. You're fine. We still love you. EVERYONE is getting the "Writer's Block" virus.
BTW: I'm thrilled with your book idea.
Perhaps the Writers' Malaise is due to the changing of seasons or the crazy weather. Since winter is on its way out, people may be using their energies to do other projects (i.e., home improvements) or adventures instead of blogging.
Of course, we could just chalk it up to an undetected pandemic of "Blogging Flu". :)
It's not your fault your site stats are down. It's mine. Well, it's my evil computer's, anyway, since it wouldn't let me online. I come here often (really often), so your stats couldn't help but suffer.
By the way, maybe those women you passed were not extraordinarily pregnant after all. Maybe they're just extraordinarily fat.
You know that as soon as you get into the book writing, find a publisher, and are working on a tight deadline, you'll get pregnant! I had a friend who was trying to get pregnant for years and she finally did--right after she gave up and started MEDICAL SCHOOL.
Anne Lamott is my favorite writing coach. She gives good advice and inspires me all around as a writer.
P.S. My stats suck. Some days it really bothers me because writing is everything to me. That's when I think, "Hmmm, maybe writing shouldn't be EVERYTHING to you."
My blog time has been severly curtailed and my stats have died.
If you feel like writing a book, get on it...before it passes and you forget everything.
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