I suppose you know I haven’t written much lately. We all have those days, days when we just squeak by. We do the things we must do each day and wait for inspiration to do more or, at least, something other.
Shaking off a brief season of routine, I stare at the canvas with palette in hand waiting for the paints to call me. Will I use yellows and greens or reds and blues or more likely a combination of them all? My right hand holds a brush, ready. Each day seems like an open field with a sea of grass, pleasant to look at but not very exciting in the long run. But, I’m getting ready.
Do I wait for inspiration, or do I just start speaking as I am now? Writers block is sometimes just writer’s boredom. There is no urgency to write. So, I call on my good angels to stir the calm around me now so that I can feel something, something urgent, something I ought to write about.
Dante when beginning each of his books of the Comedia calls on Greek muses to help him elevate his writing to a level of wisdom and beauty that he thought beyond him. Dante, the Christian believer, invokes Greek muses not because they are pagan but because they are pre-christian through no fault of their own.
Looming decisions, family illness, job troubles, misunderstandings with your life partner — all these can restrain even the most prolific writer from picking up a pen, or more likely, firing up an Office program. But, you write anyway. The thing you write may end up in the waste basket or deleted forever. Then, again, it just might be one of the best things you have ever written.
Grasp by the throat the times you feel uninspired and write! Gently bring your heart and mind back to some writing task when you absolutely do not want to write and, then, write something. That’s the way toddlers begin their compositions with crayon and kitchen wall. Humbling, ain’t it?
