Breaking Up is Hard to Do

I swung my chair around, giving him my back. "I never wanted this," I muttered.

He whirred away, oblivious, persistent. Making important statement and rambling senselessly, all at once.

I hunched over my notebook, writing against the cramp in my hand.

I glanced back. I couldn't help it. It wasn't like it would turn me into a pillar of salt.

He had something to tell me.

I ignored him. Finished a page. Rubbed at the ink staining the callous on my middle finger.

I looked back. He had seven things to tell me. I bit my lip. Surely one of those things was something I wanted to hear, something I needed to know, something that would make this worthwhile.

I put down the notebook, turned toward him, and refreshed.

I smiled. "Oh twitter, you've done it again. I could never stay mad at you."

Autumnal Blahhhhs (and Cure for:)

I appear to be suffering from late-autumn burn out.

Winter comes early here. High winds have relieved the trees of their leaves, and we've had a couple of heavy frosts and wimpy snow storms. Thick snow marches down the mountainsides, stealing color from us each night as we sleep. This after a "summer" where we set a record for consecutive rainy days. And I've been sick for something like a month. All and all, a bad fall for yours truly.

So how do I combat this? What little steps do I take to keep myself writing despite the fact that my brain has ceased functioning, either due to illness or medication? How do I stay inspired when I realize, 60,000 words into a story, that I made an essential error in plotting in the first 10,000 and will now have to undo each and every stitch, rewire the entrails, and zip it back up? (Yes, I do recognize how utterly un-smooth that analogy was.)

This is when I dive back into my "Ideas and Starts" files. The sterling story ideas that never took off, the characters that talked smart but hadn't found anything to do, the glorious worlds I'd conceived but then left unpopulated. I realize that I don't have to have a great idea today. I just have to sit here long enough to bang out an ending for the great idea I had last year. Blog chains help, because they obligate me to create something, and because reading all the other posts helps on the inspiration front.

So tell me, how do you overcome the blahs?

AbsoluteWrite October Blog Chain

This month's theme is "masquerade". Our host is the - let's hear it for her - AuburnAssassin. Thanks! My contribution comes from a work in progress.

Poor Elizabeth Starling. Her life is defined by "if only's". If only she hadn't been struck with a terminal illness before modern medicine. If only her father hadn't been a third rate wizard. If only his spell, meant to transfer her mind into an able body, didn't keep repeating...and repeating...

***** CONTAINS SOME ADULT CONTENT IN A JUVENILE CONTEXT*****

EDIT: THIS POST HAS BEEN SNATCHED BACK AND HIDDEN DOWNSTAIRS, UNDER A CUP, BY THE AUTHOR.

*****

Please check out the other fine and diverse participants:

Auburn Assassin http://clairegillian.wordpress.com/
YOU ARE HERE
Aimee Laine www.aimeelaine.com/writing/blog
Ralph Pines http://thewonderingswordsman.wordpress.com/
Veinglory http://erecsite.blogspot.com/
Laffarsmith http://www.craftingfiction.com
PASeaholtz http://paseasholtz.com/
Madelein.Eirwen http://madeleineirwen.blogspot.com/
Amy Doodle www.mindovermullis.com
CScottMorris CScottMorrisBooks.com
Orion_mk3 http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com/
FreshHell http://freshhell.wordpress.com
IrishAnnie http://superpenpower.blogspot.com/
Dolores Haze http://dianedooley.wordpress.com/
Aidan Watson-Morris http://mangaka-tales.blogspot.com/
WildScribe http://polyspace.wordpress.com
Hayley E. Lavik http://hayleyelavik.com/
Bettedra http://bettedra.wordpress.com/
Aheila http://thewriteaholicblog.wordpress.com/