Monday, July 6, 2009

Daily Life: Writers Block and a Dream in Four Parts

I woke this morning with the memory of the frame of dream, but no memory of the contents of the dream. All I recalled on waking is that the dream had four parts. I don't recall what any of those four parts were.

It was yet another beautiful California morning, nice and cool, some high clouds to the east, a pretty sunrise and a smooth commute into work. Work itself has been quiet and productive. I suspect the quiet comes because many people are probably either on their summer vacations or on an extended weekend from the 4th of July holiday.

I've been thinking this morning about writing and writers block. For me, writers block usually takes the shape of simply not being able to write that first sentence or that first paragraph. My mind moves around with all the potential ideas to write about but they just don't seem to make the trip to my finger tips to pour out on the virtual paper.

I can sometimes power through it by just sitting down and starting to write. Even if it is nonsense words or phrases or sentences, once I have physically started to write, then the ideas themselves will come flowing out down the same path. So, often what I will do is open a document and simply start writing.

"The sun is shining outside…"

"My shoes are snug on my feet…"

"My coffee cup is off white and has a US Savings Bonds decal on it, I got it from a bond drive at work a few years ago…"

As I move through the process of writing just very ordinary things I find that I can often keep flowing into writing more significant things.

When it comes to external distractions, I find that sometimes I can write through them without even noticing. Other times the external distractions serve to pull me off center and make it more difficult to putting the words on paper. That is not exclusive to writing though, I find it often happens in the office as well. Sometimes the external distractions pass by unnoticed. Other times they gain a disproportional weight and drag me to a point of inactivity as I wait for them to pass.

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