Somewhere, tucked away in a darkened corner of the attic inside my brain, are the words that I desperately need to complete the revisions to a client's project I've been working on for the past week or so.
It reminds me of my old newspaper days when you'd hit the equivalent of a writing "speedbump" and that word, the very one that would so perfectly complete a thought, a sentence, a headline was just beyond your grasp. My colleagues and I would helplessly confront one another, adopting a robotic monotone, endlessly repeating, "Word needed! Word needed!"
I've done a lot of writing lately representing a variety of voices, subjects and styles. I've been in a fairly consistent state of one-upmanship with clients as my words have become theirs and their words have, in some cases, replaced mine. Well, says the little writer who lives somewhere deep in my soul, if you thought that sentence was good, it's only because you haven't seen this one yet. And the battle of the wordsmiths would resume and I would hurl myself headlong inside of it.
But then ... it just stopped. (If you've ever fancied yourself a writer, you know exactly what I mean.) Instead of languishing in a steady stream of literary love, I find myself drowning in a linguistic dearth of epic proportions. It feels very much like being mid-shower when someone tries to do dishes or flush the toilet. It's that startling a jolt.
It's been a fabulous few weeks. My fear is that the proverbial well of words has now run dry. (Maybe I really did use up more than my share of valuable brain cells in less than productive -- albeit infinitely amusing -- ways in college and the piper now has come to exact his price. EEK!)
Somewhere. Buried beneath countless cobwebs, aging memories and mental photographs from long ago scenes from a much-younger me's life (oh my God, look at me! I was sooooo thin!) I shuffle through them, peek here, peek there and yet those words continue to elude me.
Here, wordy, wordy, wordy. Where arrrrrrrrrrrre yooooooooooooooou?!
A non-professional,faux home improvement blog dedicated to the insane yet diligent do-it-yourselfer,thoroughly peppered with random views and thoughts from me
7 comments:
Perhaps we can help! Just keep writng the only words you can think of, eat some chocolate, write some more, eat more chocolate. If the word does not appear, have some wine. When all else fails, sleep on it. You will be awoken at 3 am with the exact word you need.
Of course it will be too late, you will have a tummy ache and be groggy from the wine but at least you will have found the word!
Bon chance mon ami.
PB
... or get out your thesaurus.
For years I worked at a place where I had to write every single day. That's how I made my living. When I'd hit a wall like you did, I felt exactly the same way. "Oh my gosh! This is it! I've used up all my creativity!" It was horrible. But, fortunately eventually my head would fill back up and the words would start flowing again. Hang in there. It will change.
For years I worked at a place where I had to write every single day. That's how I made my living. When I'd hit a wall like you did, I felt exactly the same way. "Oh my gosh! This is it! I've used up all my creativity!" It was horrible. But, fortunately eventually my head would fill back up and the words would start flowing again. Hang in there. It will change.
Maybe I am using too much of the brain power lately and I have been using up all the good words. I have been on a roll this week so I guess it is my fault! ;-)
I agree with Plumbelieve--the word will probably come to you at 3 a.m. That's what usually happens to me, anyway. The right word will come to you, don't worry!
I'm glad to know that happens to a lot of people because I was kind of thinking Alzheimer's for myself. Who knows, but I HATE not being able to think of the word "blanket" not to mention those $5 words that will blow the socks off people.
It happens to me a little more each year. And if I've been writing intensely, it is more severe; I can only speak half-sentences sometimes. The worst is when you KNOW the perfect word is out there, but you just can't get to it.....
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