I was actually on break when this question came out, but it is a fabulous question (and Christine has already peer-pressured me into it by answering also) so here goes. The question was originally posed by that talented blog-chainer Kate, who asks:
Curses, you've been cursed! You can write no longer. The story well has run dry, and you can't even remember how to type. Now what do you do? Where do you channel your creative energies? And to what lengths would you go to break the curse?
OMG! You mean I can't sit at my desk and stare at the blank screen begging for inspiration and wit to arrive? This curse assumes that writing is all about the typing and creation, but the dry wells are part of the writing process as well. Not knowing how to type would be a hindrance for sure though, especially since my day job requires it LOL.
I'd love to say that I would die an agonizing death, my fingers curling up into poisonous claws and my body withering to nothing but bones and sinew. Unfortunately, I have not yet had "the call", where my mind thinks of nothing but writing day and night. If anything, this is the aspect of writing I agonize over - that I am not as entrenched in the writing world as I should be. I agonize right now because I can't seem to live and breathe this stuff yet.
I do admit however, that since I do dream of being a real writer some day (kind of like Pinocchio but with no strings or rapidly growing nose), what the curse would cause me to wail about is the destruction of this dream. Right now, I strive towards this goal, hoping that one day I will awake with a furious need to write. If I didn't have that, what would I do with all my spare time (that stuff that I seem to lack but everyone else seems to have tons of). To break the curse, I'd probably have to go rent a cabin in the mountains, hire some ancient looking medicine man, and dance around the bonfire howling at the moon. Then if that didn't work, maybe I'd go stalk Jamie Ford until he made a blood pact with me, which would surely kick start the creative juices (or get me thrown in jail, where I could write a memoir detailing the experience).
Now it's your turn. What would you do if something this horrendous happened to you? Oh, and I strongly advise you start at Kate's blog and read through everyone else's responses. There's some great stuff there.
2 comments:
I agree that your curse-breaking experience would make for an interesting story!
To be honest, this happens to me more times than I care to admit, and when it does I simply allow life to suck me back into it's greedy clutches for awhile. Usually after a few weeks I'm able to sit down again and pick up the storyline, and I'll see possibilities that I could have sworn weren't there before.
But I know that doesn't always work for everyone and that some feel like that's just giving up. I dunno-- I just know that beating a dead horse isn't going to do much of anything and so I'm willing to let it lie until I get my inspiration back. There's no real on/off switch for me.
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