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Yesterday I finally broke free of the writer’s block that has been strangling me for the last couple of months. I have to tell you, if you’re a writer, there’s no hell on earth quite as vicious as not being able to write. You have to fight for every single word and then, when you go back and read the words you pulled–kicking and screaming!–from some dark, shadowy corner of your mind, it all sounds like crap. More often than not, I end up deleting those words I fought so hard for, but today, after writing more than two thousand words yesterday, when I opened the file this morning and read what I’d written, well, let’s just say I might actually keep them. Yippee!
So what broke the block for me? Well, doing something I really, really, really, hate to do; an outline–of sorts. To be more specific, a timeline.
You see, I’ve been working, or trying to work, on one of my WIPs titled Winds of Fate, a story based on the legend of how Blowing Rock, North Carolina got its name. And since I always worry about stealing someone else’s words or ideas when I’m working with a known legend, I’ve embellished the story to make it my own, so to speak, and added elements of two more Cherokee legends, one about the Wind Messengers and yet another about reincarnation.
And it was the reincarnation one that did it. The main characters are on their seventh lifetime together when my story takes place and for the sake of consistency, I need to nail down at least the bare basics of those prior lifetimes; dates, names, etc.
It’s complicated and could very likely lead to me pulling out all my hair, but its also interesting and entertaining and most important, it’s gotten me back to writing again, thank God. So hopefully, this despicable block is behind me and I am, as the title of this blog entry says…
Free at last!
* My apologies to Martin Luther King for using his words. I know they were, and still are, meant to convey a deeper, more profound meaning, but they were the first thing to come to my mind when I started writing this blog entry.
Who was it that said “April is the cruelest month…”? T. S. Eliot, right? In his poem The Waste Land, right? Well, that may be true for some, but not for me, not this year anyway. January gets my vote this year. It just about did me in and I’m behind on everything but things are looking up…
Today, the sun is out, the temperature is a balmy 65 after a week of cold days and even colder nights, and yesterday was Truck Day! If you’re a Boston Red Sox fan, you know what that means; baseball season is just around the corner. Only five days until pitchers and catchers report–including our captain, Jason Varitek!–to Ft. Myers, Florida and the rest of the team won’t be far behind. Yay! And the best thing about the baseball season for me? Hope!
Along with warmer weather and the start of Spring Training, February also brings me new hope in the form of High Country Writers. Yep, that’s right, I joined a writer’s group and I will be, if the weather and my health allows, going to meetings twice a month. It’s a two and a half hour drive up to Boone for the meetings, but I think it will be worth it. If nothing else, I hope being involved with this group will get me back on track with my writing because that was another thing that suffered in January. Worst case of writer’s block–EVER!–and I am more than ready for it to be over!
And finally, the number one reason February is about hope for me this year, on February 14th at dawn, we have the dawning of the age of Aquarius–I bet all you baby boomers out there know what I’m talking about! For those who weren’t lucky enough to be around in the 60’s, here you go (from the musical Hair, lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni):
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius
The Age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind’s true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius
The Age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!
Can’t get any more hopeful than that, can you?
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