01 September 2012

Braving the Deep Wood - Where From Here?

A forest of noises, the great green wall within my head. Steam from the nostrils of my horse drifts lazily past my eyes. The sun is just cracking the sky, frost is on the grass, and I clutch the reins a bit nervously while staring into the trees. It is dark between the trunks. A darkness so thick I cannot quit the notion that it never goes away, even in the implacable white gold noon of a high summer's day.


I wrote that bit above a few days ago. My head was full of pressure and noise. That passage is what came out, and I must confess I was slightly disappointed. It started with such promise. It came to a crashing halt as I typed "...day."

The wheels fell off the writing bus. There was so much promise...

I seemed to have abruptly lost the thread. I was banging away on the keyboard, turned my head slightly to look out the window at a passing shadow, and the thoughts vanished like steam into the air.

I had such promise.

The paragraph suddenly became a metaphor for my forays into writing. Burst of promise, bright new idea, the words flowing...into nothing. This is most troubling.

There is something holding me back, dear ones, and I cannot get a grip on it. The specter of unfulfilled potential is shuffling around in the dusty closets of my mind. I am fighting the urge to look over my shoulder.

Specters, my friends. If anyone has insight in how to banish them, please let me know. It is the first day of September and harvest time is coming up soon. I need to be ready to reap what I have sown.

8 comments:

  1. Your short paragraph stopped abruptly as if you were scared to go further into that deep, dark forest in your mind. Only you know why.

    So, take your camera, grab a book, go for a hike, whatever. Be outside your head, and leave your specters behind, if just for awhile.

    Will it work? Don't know for you, but I can usually distract my mind parasites that way, even though they will always burrow back in. The curse of the creative mind, I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  2. sometimes i have to let things sit in my notebook for a bit...and sometimes just let the writing go where it will...when i am really stuck i go sit and just write what i see trying to build the picture more and more...

    ReplyDelete
  3. i'm not a writer, sweetpea, i just play one on my MAC. *youknowyoulaughed* sometimes it happens and other times it doesn't, so what to do is every writers question. it seems the guys & gals who've gone before us said it best: write a line or 20, but write every day. don't be afraid because your words will come out when they're ready. ;~) xoxoxoxox

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know the feeling. Words seem to be hiding in the shadows, eluding my vision. I, like you, have so many starts that come to a sudden halt as if my brain froze over.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is what I do Irish, first off don't sit at the pooter wishing for words to come, they won't. Buy yourself a journal to carry with you, o and secure a pen with it. Then scribble, scribble, and scribble some more. When the words are ready they will complete themselves We all go through these times Irish so don't fret. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rome wasn't built in a day. One brick, one paragraph at a time.
    Press onward.
    Potential is only potential is you stop striving for something more.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @terlee: Good advice. Time for a photo safari and a long walk!

    @cheryl: I have a small cloud of notebooks orbiting me. I hope to get them corralled as soon as possible :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I snorted out loud at the "small cloud of notebooks orbiting me". :)

    ReplyDelete

"Let your laws come undone
Don't suffer your crimes
Let the love in your heart take control..."


-'The Hair Song', by Black Mountain

Tell me what is in your heart...