Let Me Feel the Power, Baby!

Yesterday was my "day off" from writing. I take one day a week just so I can re-charge my batteries and not hit a wall creatively speaking.

Alas, a writer's mind is never still though. During the moments I was slaving to the apron, playing teacher to my four children or climbing Mt. St. Laundry I was thinking about my current work-in-progress (wip).

So, while I scrubbed some king of mystery liquid out of my son's socks I set about mentally planning the last three chapters of Sunrise for Three. All kind of wicked things were playing out in my head. It was a very zen moment of connection with my characters and I was all like...

...and life was good. I patted myself on the back with my soapy hands and continued on with the glamorous life of sock scrubbing. 

Little bits of imagery and dialogue popped in here and there and in my minds eye I had a pretty good sense of what I wanted happen in the last show down between the heroes, heroine and the villain.

I took a few notes when needed, went about my day, and set the alarm for six a.m. to get cracking and get this puppy wrapped up. I was totally stocked!

In my dreams I was totally Jim Carey rocking at the keyboard.

Oh Yeah! Let me feel the power, baby!

Six o'clock rolled around, I climbed out of bed, cranked up the laptop and opened up my manuscript. I scanned over what I had written during my last writing session, put my fingers to the keyboard and then...nothing happened. My mind went blank. I moved the cursor over to start a new paragraph, took out my notes from yesterday and still nothing clicked.

My Jim Carey mojo had disappeared, stolen by some evil mojo killing fairy while I slept.

Remember how I blogged about every sentence being a struggle last week? Then yesterday I blogged about the word count coming a little easier this week? Yeah, my muse is laughing his arse off at me right now.

This morning I can actually say I watched seven o'clock roll over into eight. By that time the family was stirring and I knew I needed to get it together or I wouldn't have another shot until tonight. That stress, combined with my absent mojo, spelled disaster and I should have listened to my instincts to back off before my brain shut down permanently.

By nine this morning I had spent three hours starring at the clock and not writing. I was of the conclusion for the millionth time since I started this crazy journey, that writing is HARD WORK!

Then my husband said something to me. He said, "go get a cup of coffee, have some sunshine and then sit down and try again." So I did.

And you know what, it worked. After a few minutes I came back, took another look at what I wanted to write today and the words started to trickle in. Single words at first, followed by full sentences, then paragraphs. As of right now I have a thousand words under the belt with three thousand to go for my goal today.

But before I take another go at the word count I took another time out to write this post. I know there's a lot of other writer's out there that think if you can't write the minute you sit down it must mean your words suck. I am here to slay that myth for you right now. Sometimes your muse (or creative juices) just needs a boost. A moment to get into gear. If you try to force them, your subconscious mind will lash out and strike you down.

My husband was on the outside looking in, he saw that I needed to get out of my own head, get some perspective and come back later. I didn't realize that I was driving my own creativity into a black hole of sucktacularship (my crazy word of the day!).

I'm that person standing on the outside looking in for you.

Know that as long as you don't give up, you'll be fine. It's okay to walk away so that you can come back stronger. I'm here to help us remember that we all have awesomeness to share. ;)

And if you don't believe me, Dean has a two words for you...

Time to go grab your cup of coffee and get inspired!