Life Came to a Skidding Halt Then I Plodded On
I've been terribly sick for the past five days. I've got one heckuvva virus doing a number on my lungs. The past two days were the worst. I simply laid on the couch and died. I'm not eating much, but I've gained eight pounds. I'm blowing up like a balloon over here.
I don't really want to blog, but I want to track my progress because there are less than 90 days to go before I need to have some big projects finished. That includes the off days as well as the on days. Therefore I must declare that I haven't been drawing. I haven't been exercising. I haven't been cleaning. I haven't worked on my client's logo. I haven't gone over the latest Scenic Route Paper contract. I even canceled home school yesterday. I've been lucky if I've been breathing.
Fortunately, I have been working on my children's picture book. I may not have mentioned it before, but I've been kicking around an idea for a few months. I had already finished the first draft but I felt it was not powerful enough. Not resplendent enough with vivid imagination.
The story is a simple one. It is about a kid's cat and what it gets up to when it's not around him. There is what he thinks it gets up to and what it really gets up to. I want the reality to make his imaginings seem almost tame in comparison, and he imagines some fairly wild ideas.
Anyway, the story is at an impasse while I struggle with a dilemma: writing without a muse. Anybody can write WHEN they have a muse, but to be truly successful one needs to be able to work whether one's muse is around or whether she has wandered off to market for a cute pair of shoes. The problem with muses is that they are great at grand ideas, but lousy at details. They wander off a lot when the story needs, I don't know, a plot or something. Piddly details like that. So I have decided I need to finish this picture book before I resume work on my novel. If I can't learn to work through a writer's block with a simple fairy tale then how am I going to plow through the difficult chapters of a middle grade novel?
To be fair, I'm really sick, but you know me. I never cut myself a break. Now my head feels clearer. I think I may go for a short walk or roll as it were. I really have bloated quite a bit. But getting out at 2am to talk out loud to myself while I work on this story may be what I need at the moment.
I don't really want to blog, but I want to track my progress because there are less than 90 days to go before I need to have some big projects finished. That includes the off days as well as the on days. Therefore I must declare that I haven't been drawing. I haven't been exercising. I haven't been cleaning. I haven't worked on my client's logo. I haven't gone over the latest Scenic Route Paper contract. I even canceled home school yesterday. I've been lucky if I've been breathing.
Fortunately, I have been working on my children's picture book. I may not have mentioned it before, but I've been kicking around an idea for a few months. I had already finished the first draft but I felt it was not powerful enough. Not resplendent enough with vivid imagination.
The story is a simple one. It is about a kid's cat and what it gets up to when it's not around him. There is what he thinks it gets up to and what it really gets up to. I want the reality to make his imaginings seem almost tame in comparison, and he imagines some fairly wild ideas.
Anyway, the story is at an impasse while I struggle with a dilemma: writing without a muse. Anybody can write WHEN they have a muse, but to be truly successful one needs to be able to work whether one's muse is around or whether she has wandered off to market for a cute pair of shoes. The problem with muses is that they are great at grand ideas, but lousy at details. They wander off a lot when the story needs, I don't know, a plot or something. Piddly details like that. So I have decided I need to finish this picture book before I resume work on my novel. If I can't learn to work through a writer's block with a simple fairy tale then how am I going to plow through the difficult chapters of a middle grade novel?
To be fair, I'm really sick, but you know me. I never cut myself a break. Now my head feels clearer. I think I may go for a short walk or roll as it were. I really have bloated quite a bit. But getting out at 2am to talk out loud to myself while I work on this story may be what I need at the moment.
Comments
Are you familiar with Julia Cameron? In The Artist's way she describes how important it is to just sit down and write every morning, especially when a dry spell hits. Hve you ever done Morning Pages? Google this.
Originally posted on November 07, 2006 1:26 PM
This working without a muse issue really shouldn't surprise me. After all, I have produced many logos, websites, scrapbook papers, etc. without having a muse. I just plodded through the walls because I had a deadline. But novel writing at this point is difficult because I don't have external deadlines and I'm not being paid for it. It will require sacrifice to bring writing into the realm of paid work. I'm determined to beat this "muse" thing. ;)
Originally posted on November 17, 2006 3:35 PM