Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Procrastination - with a capital "P"

I'm here. I'm right where I have been longing to be - alone in the house with my music, my lap top and my thoughts. I'm here to write - apparently!! I feel like the bird who wanted the worm, and then choked on it.


I'd love to pass it off as a bad dose of writers block, but that's not it. I wish I could say that there were so many other things to do today, I just didn't get time. But for once, that's not the case. I'm here, I'm equipped, yet my heart isn't in it today. It's like Janie wrote for Write Stuff last week - what do you do when your every fibre screams 'I dont want to write today'. I dont think that it's that I dont want to write today - I'm listless - what do I want to write today.


Simple solutions to this problem (I thought) - was to go and check out the Fiction Friday prompt for the week. It always gets the creative juices flowing. Problem is, this week's prompt is one of the prompts that I submitted earlier on in January. I thought it was pretty creative at the time, now I baulk at it and go 'what the hell am I going to write about that?' So first solution was anything but. Trusty Plan B goes to '3am Epiphany - uncommon writing exercises that transform your writing' ... turned to a page about interrorgation. Not my scene today.


Julia Cameron in the Artist Way says that it's ego to not create - because creativity is at the core of our nature as artists. To be resistent, defiant is to go against the natural flow. I went to singing group earlier on today - which was quite creative and amazing soul food. I whipped up a groovy red library bag, with a pocket on the front in black and white pirate material when I got home - all from scratch and amazingly all int he right dimensions ... and later on tonight I'm off to belly dancing. Singing, dancing, sewing - all things that Ilove. Writing, for today at least, is on the outer? Or is it?


Like Janie wrote last week, just the act of writing down the little foot stamping is not just cathartic it gets you writing. With fifteen minutes to spare until its time to head for Kindy - not a huge amount of time to compose anything, but I have written something - here just now. Reminds me of our old flat mate who would procrastinate from his PhD studies with his hobby of painting. Only I discovered him one day procrastinating from painting the picture he had been working on - to take up sign writing on his window door, reminding my partner it was his turn to cook. It was Dave's turn to cook until the day before we moved out when the paint was finally removed from the window. I've written on my cyber wall to remind me of my motto 'Just Write' and the rest will fall into place!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate when that happens; when I have time to write and I'm all set and nothing comes. Or somethings come but they aren't what I want to write about.

You did write. You wrote something most of us can identify with. That's not a bad thing. This was sort of a "Morning Page."

So not all was lost, even if you probably don't see it that way.

Unknown said...

It must be a bit catching. But as you said, just writing something, even if it's to say I can't think of anything to write, generally gets my wheels turning and I find I had something to write after all.

Jodi Cleghorn said...

Thanks Corina and Square1 for your solidarity and support.

And yes Corina - it did sound very much like a 'morning page' blurt. I seem to be pretty bad and blurting in my morning pages, but quite apt at gushing it out on my blog? Go figure.

The creative juices are flowing in a big way today ... and I am much grateful for that. Thanks to both of you for dropping by on a day when I really needed to hear it from someone else that its hard to turn up at the page sometimes ... and JUST WRITE!

catryan said...

I've been reading Time to Write by Kelly Stone (I think) and it's been inspiring. I also bought one of those little books called Writer's Block, which is shaped like a block, that has about 500 one word prompts or pictures or passages to kick me into gear when I'm staring at a blank screen.