My muses are still on vacation. . . Eh

I’ve been having serious issues with writing this year. . . last year I had over a quarter of a million words written, but this year I can barely get ten thousand a month. I could get through Camp NaNo in April.

I know I want to write. . . screw it, I need to write. I just feel like my muses went on a long vacation, and my character will not talk directly to me. They only talk when my muses are around; it’s like they need the middle man to tell their stories.

Maybe I need more or new inspiration. . .

Maybe I need a vacation (laughs).

Maybe I just need the right song. . .

Whatever it is I hope it comes back in November.

It’s crazy I have all of these ideas stuck in my head, and yet I can’t not get them out. . . it’s like they are in suspended animation. However I did notice if an idea slips out that I am usually at my busiest moment. . . always happens. (I’m trying to stay busy. . . sometimes so busy I cannot write.)
I feel like my brain is a dusty attic where the light only works when it wants to, and everything is in boxes covered with at least an inch of dust and cobwebs. I need to get inspired. . . fix the damn light and clean the dust and cobwebs. But how?

I hope my brain gets more active before and during NaNoWriMo. That is why I am writing prompts. . . on my other account http://Rebekah1213.wordpress.com

Four in The Morning

 

 

4 in the Morning. . .

 

Have you ever just sat in your favorite seat at four in the morning wanting to write . . . only to know that you need sleep for the events of the next day?

 

Your major jolt of caffeine had burnt out hours ago. . . now you are sipping soda believing that you are going to write, only to know that you should have started to drink water the minute your major jolt stopped . . . You take another sip, it’s too late to go back now. You finish one can and then onto another.

 

You want to write, you want to need it, but you are zombified. . . that is when you are so tired, so exhausted that your bottom is stuck in your seat and you can hear your pen and paper (or computer) mocking you. It sits on the end table pen on top of the notebook. . . it’s mocking you, telling you have an idea. . . it’s a freakin’ awesome idea. It is the next big selling story/novel. You trade it looks. . . it knows you want to pick it up, you need to pick up. At this point even your muse is saying. . . “damn!”

 

Your exhaustion finally fights against the urge of the mocking pen, of the idea sporadically playing in your head. The only thing you are certain of is that your focus is -13. You simply ignore everything.
You flip the channels to see many infomercials. . . two of nonstick pans, four different blenders, three vacuums, eight diet/exercise plans, two match makers, and five different sex/phone chat lines. You notice it was the same episode of Law and Order that you had seen three times before. You seen the episodes of CSI: Miami and House twice, and Married with Children and That’s 70’s show at least five times. There is nothing on the tube!

You flip the channels through again hoping there was something new, something you missed, something that changed. It was all the same, it’s always the just the same. Your exhaustion is making you momentarily insane. You just leave it on whatever. . . you yawn for the millionth time, your beyond exhausted, your eyes are getting heavy . . . sleepy. . . . before you know it blackness.

 

Then your cat either drops your can on the floor, turns the channel, or hops on your lap. You leap almost hitting the ceiling, you hate the admit it, but you are startled. You curse the damn cat, and then you sit there starting the channel flipping all over again.

You hear the pen and paper (computer) mocking you. . . that is what happens at four in the morning!

 

Different Levels

Different Levels

 

Have you ever been ready for bed or just slept a few hours and suddenly your muses are running in full drive? You fight for a few minutes whether to even move.  You know that they have fun a great idea that was hidden somewhere in your head, and they have to get that idea on paper or screen NOW! (It’s now or they strike, and most writers who have had writer’s block (for whatever amount of time) would take it more serious than those who write all of the time.) You mumble as your warm feet hit the cold ground, you get on your favorite robe and slipper, make your coffee, tea, hot cocoa, or pop. . . meanwhile the muses are making it sound like a game. If you don’t do all of this and get to that notebook or computer  within 30 seconds, the idea gets it. (Yes, they have a gun to the damn idea.)

You finally get to the computer, you type faster than you had ever known. . . You save your idea, scene, line, page, character etc. Then you end up playing Candy Crush Saga or Solitaire or whatever mindless game you enjoy for several hours just to wind back down only to get to sleep for two hours knowing that the next day is the busiest day you’ll have all week, maybe all month. It always seems that muses know when you are at your busiest, and they love to want to work then, so we are downing enough caffeine to light up a small town.

 

However why is when you want to work, when you had rearranged your entire weekly schedule just to get a few hours in to write, and your muses are out for a long lunch or your characters are on strike for a better storyline?

Why is it you write outline after online, lists, character sketches, plot flow charts only to go where the characters and muses steer you?

 

There are only ever a few times I have ever had those golden moments where my muses and I got along (not counting NaNoWriMo). . . they never happened when I plan them. I remembered several times the members in my household would give me time to write and I would still wait until they all went to sleep just to get words on the page.

 

I’m just being to believe that my muses, my characters and I are on different levels. I also know along as I play their games, they give me some pretty good stories. (Even now as I am writing this blog, my muses are working on a story that they were fighting me with. I’ll be honest, it will get written down by the end of the night.)

 

 

Do other writers have the same problems?