Sometimes your characters won’t leave you alone, and at other times, it’s as though they’ve gone on vacation. Some days, you can sit at your computer (notebook) and whip out 10 pages in a couple hours. Other days, to get 10 words out feels as though you’re trying to drag a house up a very bumpy hill.
This is normal.
Frustrating, but normal.
I read The Artist’s Way a few years ago, and Julia Cameron had some interesting insight into this problem with creativity. She likened creativity to a pond, and the more we fish in this pond, the more creativity we use up. So we have to replenish our pond of creativity by doing things that will inspire us, look at photographs, go for a walk, visit a museum — sorry, not switch on the TV.
Of course, it’s not only the amount of fishing that drains our pond. It’s also all the other things going on in our lives.
But our characters are not going to be silent forever. Eventually, they will demand that their story is told — and only you can tell it.
So, next time you’re trying to drag words out of your brain, fill your pond.
Write on!
