Saturday, April 20, 2013

down time

We all deserve a little "down time" now and then, don't you think? Even Mother Nature can't be at the top of her game every day of every week of every season. Which is why it's the middle of April and parts of the country are still buried under snow...

www.minnesota.publicradio.org
...and those of us who have been spared are still worried our tulips will freeze.
 
 
Although, to her credit, Mother Nature did share a moment of inspiration with us last week when she let loose with four days of glorious, though unseasonably...dare I say it?...HOT weather. But now it's back to the same old thing--the cold, the wind, the mud--just when things were looking up. It makes you wonder. Will spring ever come to stay? Will summer ever get here? Does Mother Nature just need a little "down time"?
 
This comes to mind because that's just how my writing has been going lately. I've been slogging back and forth through the last three chapters of my WIP for weeks, not making much progress.
 
www.jamieprovencher.com


Except for a rare moment of inspiration, I have been stuck. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever get to the end. If I'll ever move on.
 
Like Mother Nature, I think we all need a little "down time" in our writing, because, in Brenda Ueland's words,
 
"Inspiration comes very slowly and quietly...
The imagination needs moodling--
long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering."
 
 
Patience. Optimism. Nuturing. You can no more rush a thought into being than you can hurry the seasons along.
 
Eventually, summer will get here. Sooner or later the story will finish itself.
 
Do you ever experience "down time"? Do you let it discourage you? Are you open to what will come of it?
*
"...it is the way you are to feel when you are writing--
happy, truthful, and free,
with that wonderful contented absorption
of a child stringing beads.
With complete self-trust."
--from Brenda Ueland in "If You Want to Write"--
*
Next week I may work up the courage to share an idea about another book with you.
jan


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