WRITERS BLOCK

I hate to tell you this but writer’s block or interrupt or whatever way you like to describe that insane place where the words simply won’t oblige you by appearing on your screen in perfect order, is real. It can happen to anyone at any time but prefers to butt in when urgency is most required to meet a deadline. It laughs in the face of total calamity, or, at least it would if it were a discrete entity of some sort. But it’s not. It’s not even a gremlin in the works, as it were. I like to see it as a process pause overload, and I identify it as a time to let the creative juices flow as they will, to take my foot off the write-by-numbers pedal, and let my mind recalibrate while my fingers drum inanely on the keyboard. I call it emotional intelligence time-out writing. It’s unplanned and somewhat inconsequential (well, you never know where it might lead) but it’s writing, nevertheless. No more block!

Conor zoomed along the skirting board grinning inanely to himself. He’d put the frighteners on Sammy again. It was so easy to do. That stupid snail couldn’t even get through a green light if his life depended on it! It was such fun to run rings around him! Every single time SSS(Stupid Snail Sammy or was it Sammy Stupid Snail) retreated into his shell totally startled! Ten more times Conor decided and he’d call it a day. Zooooooom! Ahhhhh! Zooooom! Ahhhh!

Sammy wasn’t impressed.CCC(Cocky Conor Cockroach or was it Conor Cocky Cockroach) was up to his daily tricks. It made Sammy furious and it took a lot to wind him up that much! Sammy couldn’t control his fright reflex, but he had an ace up his sleeve (or was that up his shell) that Conor had no idea about. Come to think of it, thought Sammy, as he sloozed (great new word for slooow snail travels) along, he didn’t know the full extent of it either but whatever it was, it was brewing, slowly but surely. A shadow of a grin plucked at the sides of Sammy’s mouth. Keep it down! Mustn’t give the game away, his mind cranked. 

8! 9! 10! Mischief managed for the day, wheezed Conor! Think I’ve done these last three too fast! But what the heck! Was totally worth it! SSS nearly levitated on that last one, he laughed. Time to chill for a bit before home for tea. CCC settled himself on the top ledge of the skirting board and drifted off into dreamland. 

SSS’s heart beat so loudly in his small chest that it sounded like machine gun fire. The more it belted out its distress signal the more the adrenaline built up in Sammy’s little body. His shell became lighter and lighter. His vision became crystal clear; he could see for miles. He could see CCC snoozing away on that ledge several metres away. He could feel the power accumulate in his little batteries. His snail house barrier began to waver, then shake up and down with increasing vigour. His muscles were bulging, pushing all obstacles out of his way. His head cleared. His smile expanded maliciously. He flung himself out of his safety house like a missile out of a slingshot! Whack! Bam! Crunch! His soft body careered into CCC’s unresisting, slumbering cardboard hide and the two cartwheeled across the floor straight into the waiting brush and pan of the cleaning lady who was already making her stealthy way towards CCC. And the rest of the story is up for grabs! 

CCC and SSS are some of my favourite characters for moving past writer’s block. When I don’t feel like writing or find it difficult to move past my last paragraph or sentence, out they come, unlikely heroes in my unwritten, ongoing lack of drama. By the time I rewrite their natural abilities I am smiling. And I am writing! 

I never finish SSS’s and CCC’s story. 

It’s all YOUR fault, cribbed Conor! What do you mean, it’s all MY fault, grunted Sammy, the dust in the pan blocking up his vocal chords? Achoo! Do it again!, yelled Conor excitedly, from his new position near the top of the dustbin. Do what, croaked Sammy slowly? 

If you find yourself in a dry writing place where the words are on holiday while your fingers twitch for their daily writing count, try finishing CCC’s and SSS’s story, or at least try and write the next episode. Better still, share it with me, and together we can make them beat all odds! And get back to the job in hand:-) Happy writing!