Oh, no, it’s Friday morning, and I’ve already had two cups of coffee, and I’m dressed and everything, and the house is quiet, since the son is at school and the spouse is at work, and things should be percolating (not just the coffee) in my brain because it’s the only time I have to be creative, not counting the times I have to make up Adventure Stories For Pokemon and explain How I Managed to Make Lasagna Without Lasagna Noodles or just WHY I have so many books.
And I got nothing. I am still toiling away on my three chapters and synopsis, they’re both almost done, but I am fried. Not good-fried, like a french fry or a deep-fried Milky Way bar (yes, a local restaurant offers those. No, I have never been so confident or depressed to order one). Bad-fried, like ‘where is my head?’ fried.
So now what? Hm. Of course I’ve got some writing triggers, like sitting at the computer and turning OFF the overhead light and turning ON the little desk lamp so there’s only a small circular glow of light on the keyboard. And lighting a candle, somehow that makes me be able to pretend I’m a Real Writer, so I Really Write when I smell the candle.
But still. It’s the end of the long week, I’m fried, and really, I got nothing.
When I get really desperate (like, um, now), I look at pictures of Clive Owen, and not just because I think he’s totally foxy. See, he’s what my hero Alisdair looks like in the chapters I’m writing. And the heroine looks like Maggie Gyllenhaal (who, coincidentally, just moved into my Brooklyn neighborhood).
And then I imagine them distrusting each other and then growing to love each other. You know–they meet, they have adventures, they fall in love and live happily ever after.
Hey, it’s not so hard after all! Thanks for the help!
Megan, I know all about mornings like yours! I light a candle, too, turn on music (has to be instrumental), and get coffee at my elbow, but sometimes the ideas still don’t come.
Maybe I’ll give your last item a whirl. Hero of mess-in-progress looks like John Corbett (as seen in Northern Exposure, not as in Sex and the City). Maybe that will help!
Elena
The problem with using this strategy for me is that I look at pictures of Gerard Butler and at GerardButler.net there are a brazilion of them, not to mention going to Youtube.com and watching videos. The whole day is shot after that!
Well, It’s been a long time since I needed to get inspired with anything, other than trying to do Phantom of the Opera icons or my dumb collages that I do, but those aren’t any biggies. LOL In that instance, Diane’s suggestion works! LOL 🙂 (unless it is X-Files related, then, well, it doesn’t much. . . ) 🙂
lois
The nice thing about being a professor is that when I lack inspiration I can just tell one of my Ph.D. students to do something. And then it’s their problem! 🙂
Todd-who-believes-in-delegating
Diane,
Brazillion = Brazilian?
It’s not just a nationality, it’s a really, really big number!
Todd-who-likes-really-really-big-numbers
Ha. I’m on a new regime as of today. All my yahoo groups (except one or two) on no-email. If necessary I intend to unplug the internet cable. and write anything, even if it’s garbage. Even if I have to add a bookmark saying “add description/love scene/sea battle/earthquake” here.
Music is good. I wish I could find my La Traviata recording.
Janet
Brazillion = a really big number, Todd. Unfortunately, I misspelled it! I actually think it came from the movie Dear Frankie. Do you know, Lois, if I’m remembering that correctly?
Alas, never saw Dear Frankie. Sorry, really! LOL 🙂 I do know that another really big number is googol, the real spelling of the word. Think that’s why google used it, a play on the fact that when you search for something there would be lots and lots of possibilities. I think googol is a 1 with a billion 0s after. . . it’s escaping me at the moment, but it’s along those lines.
Yeah, I know, way more info than you really wanted. LOL 🙂
Lois
Ummm. Googol is larger than all the known particles in the universe, but I think it’s 1 with 100 0s after it, not a million.
ah, hell. I’m a geek.
Wikipedia
But actually, I guess that’s the point–think of a question, spend the next bazillion, brazilllion, or googol hours NOT writing.
Or in my case, vacuuming.
Must fold laundry. Must vaccum. Must continue writing. Eh, OK.
Suisan,
Right on about a googol=10^100. And then there is the googolplex which is 10^googol (a 1 followed by a googol 0s). The story I heard is that the mathematician who invented them let his very young son choose the name, which is an example of why we serious scientist types never, never let small children do our work for us. Unless, of course, they are very, very smart small children.
Todd-whose-grad-students-are-looking-younger-all-the-time
I prefer brazillion to googol. It just has a more poetic ring to it.