Do you have any idea how hard it is to write when you’re sick? Writers are a very temperamental, borderline mentally ill sort of people. Trying to successfully write when you’re sick is like a drunk trying to get home. You know the way but there’s zero focus going on up there. This is the sickness blog.
I’ve convinced myself this is just my body and a temporary breakdown revolving around being so broken down by all the hospital activity with my daughter this past month. Yes, I said month. It will be four weeks tomorrow that she has been in there and I’ve been running around like a rooster with his..feathers plucked. But back to the drama of the writers mind. Seems more interesting.
Here’s another fun factoid: a writer revelling in fear, joy, loss, love, sadness or pretty much any other emotion is not at a loss but is completely fueled for great writing. Going through a painful breakup? I’ve written some of my best stuff. In a super chipper mood? Again, gold. It’s how we operate. Emotions are our lifeblood, otherwise it’s just monotonous drivel spewing out.
Whew, I actually made it to “paragraph four” and this isn’t sucking (at least I hope not). Time, like illness, is definitely a hindrance in the creative mind. If you’re tired and would rather zone out in front of the tv, 100% of the time we go with the zone out. Rest, along with enough time, is pretty darn paramount in this live action field. A burned out brain is merely a wasteland for pure unadulterated rubbish. To be sharp is everything.
And sharp, I am not. This illness is morphing over three days and I raise my white flag to say eff this with a zero tolerance attitude. Will that in itself heal me and bring me back amongst the supposed living? Not a chance in hades but it was worth a shot, on paper.
This brings us into another dimension of the writers process and that is perseverance. What needs to get done must get done, no matter how many toilet paper rolls get unravelled. No matter how many extra strength tylenol gel caps are washed down, completion of a task is handled professionally.
And finally, folks, when a writer gets into a groove there’s no stopping him or her, until he stops himself. I bet most of you forgot I was braindead and ill, didn’t you? See, I knew it! Sure, it sometimes takes a while for a creative mind to get going (and often with no destination in sight) but once those engines are juiced and are firing fully functionally, the skies the limmer and I mean that.
Ultimately, let me get some bloody rest, can you do that? Seriously, I love you all. And I love writing, period. If I was on my period, I might struggle a bit like I have tonight but luckily I don’t have a uterus. I guess what I’m really trying to say is we have to keep on, that’s it. No matter where in life or where you work or who you live with or what color underwear you have on, we just move on down the road that is life. Pen drop.