Go With the Flow!

Writer's Block, Blank Page, The Horror call it what you like and whether or not you believe it exists is your prerogative  for me, it does. Of course there are the likes of Fredrick Forsyth who churns out at least ten pages a day and insists 'It's a job, that's all. Get on with it!' 

That's me told!

Still, being told off NEVER worked for me. I get that dreaded feeling  sitting there waiting for the muse to descend and allow reams of wonderfully flowing prose and precise believable dialogue to fill every last centimetre and nothing but nothing comes. 

Well nothing other than the urge to check Facebook every five minutes. Wow, I never knew a cat could do that - I must share it with all my friends - do I share this to fill my time or to make them as unfocused as myself? Mmm....to be fair they send me an equal amount of rubbish. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for every last video, picture, quote, status update, my current particular favourite is the one of a two year old dancing to Gagnam Style, and filled at least 30 minutes of otherwise wasted blank screen time. 

I love them all BUT, they are not helping as no sooner have I sent them to fifteen people and then read their 'funny' comments there's another one to watch and share and comment and so on and so on and before you know it it's pretty much lunch time (11.15 is 'pretty much' lunch time, right?) Then of course, as I go for a daily power walk after dropping off half pint, I need to shower and wash my hair obviously, don't want all my ex work colleagues to think I've turned into an unwashed crazy woman who sits rocking at her desk waiting for inspiration, stroking her kitten in yesterday's pants (not the cat...she always has fresh pants!). 

No sooner is all that done then it's time for a quick cuppa and off to pick up Number Five again. It's tough work but someone has to do it!

This has to stop - and stop it shall.

The power walk although time-consuming (i'm up to an hour every morning now), is a great way to get into gear, to clear your mind of everything from 'hysterical' quotes to friends disastrous (public) break-ups which actually BTW are really useful for writers so keep 'em coming (watch out for yourselves in my characters!) just don't expect me to comment so much...before 3pm anyway when my work day ends!

This month, yes I know it's only half way through (12th is almost half way through, right?) I have discovered a new way to get the juices flowing...oi oi...you at the back there, get your mind out of the gutter...I meant creative juices, obvs! And this is it......

Apart from the three books and four or five scripts i'm writing I have started another book...before you scream 'finish the others first' this is different. It's an exercise; a way to unblock the block so to speak a literary laxative if you please. 

This book has no plan, synopsis, character breakdowns, no plot, story no beginning middle or end. It is free-flow. I sit down straight from my walk (after a quick cuppa) and write whatever comes into my head. It gets me going, dispels the horror of the blank page and if I write nothing else that day at least i'm 500-1000 words further on with this 'non-book book' which, I have to say, is turning out to be rather good! Because I have nothing invested in it, i'm not stressed about it, not tying myself in knots wondering where the protagonist is going to meet her fate, I just write. I write and write and when I get to the bottom of the page I stop. By that time, without forcing it, ideas for my other stuff comes falling out on to the screen too. 

If you're a writer, give it a go. It's certainly more productive than sharing your/my comedic genius with one and all on a twenty minute rotation. 

Anyway...have to fly it's lunchtime...11.19 actually. What? I've written 600 words of my non-book and a blog! AND I now know, thanks to my morning mind-jog, what i'm writing in the precious time after lunch!