Dog-gone, where'd my creativity go?
Some days one little thing happens and it's like your brain has had the delete key pressed (I imagine a little old man with glasses rummaging through the dusty, spiderweb-ridden storage room looking for that good idea, but ultimately just shaking his head at the sorry state of my mind's hopeless filing system).
Today was like that for me. I have three dogs, and I'm constantly advising would-be pet owners, that is one too many. This is especially the case when you have one dog that decides to be mean to another. Long story short, there is now a lot of sulking and soreness in separate corners. This small but stressful event is enough to leave me brain dazed.
The unlikely villain: 'Fossil'
So what should I do? Stare blankly at the screen and not write? Nah. That's when it's time to see writing as a task and... just do it anyway.
I started to write in my journal, just riff-writing (writing without control of the direction, just putting down whatever comes to mind) and I was surprised at what I got. At first it was all about the dogs fighting and how angry and shaken I was. Not surprising because that's what was on my mind, but then my thoughts wandered to my father's dog that passed away this week after an amazing 17yrs. I remembered all the funny stories about this dog and then started to remember things about my childhood dogs. I also remembered reading a newspaper story about my dad when he was a young boy and he adopted a dog from the local pound.
Although at the time this seemed irrelevant, now that I think about it, I would like my 12 yr. old protagonist from Warracknabeal Kids, to have a dog. He's a boy growing up in the country, he has no mother - he should have a dog. Some of my riff-writing will be of value to my story. I'm excited now too, because I love writing dog characters.
So I'm suggesting when you hit those times where you are stressed or tired and you just 'can't think', don't. Write instead.
I did get a nice treat this week when I received this pretty 'Silver Lining Award' from Niki at:
Wool' N 'Nuts a fun blog about writing and farming and more :-)
It was most appropriate and reminds me to see the silver lining in today's events :-)
I'd like to pass the award onto (well, everyone really, but here's a couple I picked out):
Mary at Play of the Page
Ann from All Write with Coffee
Rosslyn at Inkhorn Blue
My Dad's Best Mate, Clancy
(named long before I met my husband and became Mrs Clancy)
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