on empty

Gang, I'm totally out of gas. I'm on deadline and am trying to continue working out while I'm forcing this book onto the paper and let me tell ya, it ain't easy. Usually going to the gym is the first thing I give up when I'm stressed. This time I've realized how important it actually is to maintaining my state of mind.

My brain hasn't shut down for 2 months and I'm exhausted. I haven't been sleeping much because I'm constantly working out a plot point or dialogue or I'm thinking about other stuff like, you know life. Things like why hasn't Matt Damon moved on? Didn't I make it clear? Doesn't he realize I'm stressed out enough as it is? I don't need him stalking me, looking at me with those puppy dog eyes and begging me for one more chance as his not-so-secret-pretend girlfriend. I'm sorry, bud. It's over. Move on.

So today's blog is really about nothing. Sorry. I'm just a mess right now. Can't function. Need brain fuel. I need something to stimulate my mind, jump start my thinking, challenge me, make me focus on something else other than the microcosm of thoughts I've been having. Any suggestions? Someone out there wanna offer up a little brain fuel for me?

Erm.

It's the bane of a writer's existence, and it comes when we least excpect it. WRITER'S BLOCK. For a long time I insisted that it was a myth. I think that's because I had this notion in my head that writer's block is the same for everyone: an absolute refusal for the brain to create. Since I had never experienced that, I assumed people who got "blocked" were really just experiencing a lazy, or a dry, or a melancholy patch. Boy, was I wrong.

It's out there. Oh, it's out there, people. Lurking. Waiting. In many, many guises.

I never have the "nothing is coming to me" variety. I am plagued by some of the following strains of the virus:

*too many ideas at once
*indecision on which idea(s) to use
*fourteen different directions, none superior to the others
*characters who won't do what I tell them
*muses with big, fat, hairy mouths who won't shut up
*distraction
*too much caffeine
*not enough sleep
*phone calls
*family

I don't know any writer alive (and if you're out there, we soooo want to interview you!!) who doesn't occasionally find him or herself staring at a blank page. In a way it's easier if you have an assignment. Then you can tackle it logically.

Creativity? Creating something out of nothing? Jesus got HUGE publicity for the loaves and fishes thing for a reason, people. It's hard. Cuz, like, there's nothing there, and you have to do the whole "let there be stuff" thing, and even God needed a few days off after his first wack at it.

So step off, k? I'm just ME.

Anyway, when all else fails, I've always favored brain drain... a free writing exercise where you take a blank sheet of paper, set a timer for one minute, and start writing absolutely anythying that comes into your head til the timer goes off. Like this:

ohmygod what the heck am I going to write on fictionistas today I can't think of anytyhing that wouldn't involve some serious googling and research and I totally want to do those things but I've got a bajillion things to do so what can I bang out kind of quickly this week why is it we have all had writer's block lately man that haiku thing gwen did was adorable hey I know I'll writer about writer's block that would work you know I really do type fast because frankly one minute could fill a very significant paragraph for somebody like me and my hands are not even propped correctly on this keyboard I hate it when other people take all the cushy chairs at starbucks when its quite obvious that this is my OFFICE, hello??? but noooo, go ahead and take the cushy chairs you philistines does philistines have one or two Ls I can't remember wow that was a fast minute

How bout you? What shakes the creative juices out of your blender?