It’s horrible, isn’t it? That empty feeling when you stare into the abyss that used to hold all your creative ideas? They were just there, a few minutes ago, I swear they were.
After my first post last night I had so many ideas and plans wandering through my brain it was hard to sleep. But I tried. Turns out I should have gotten up and written them all down because tonight I sat here to write and faced the empty abyss.
It’s even more frustrating because in the shower this morning (why is it always in the shower?) I was composing an amazing post in my head. It was totally brilliant! Now, after a long day, after a night of little sleep, the creative ramblings either faded away or perhaps joined hands as they ran away singing a song. I much prefer the latter visual as it leaves the possibility open that they are just around the corner on their way home from their musical endeavors (excuse my silliness – see dictionary for “sleep deprivation” for an explanation).
I’ve been here before though, most writers have. Some call it writer’s block. For me, it isn’t staring at the empty page that’s a problem because I can always do what I’m doing now – writing to fill that blank page. Whether I’m writing for a client or for myself, I know that just putting words down – even if they make no sense at all – will eventually get me where I need to go.
And where is that exactly? To the point where my creativity flows again, as long as I’m not too demanding about where or how it flows. The act of typing away words is an act of sheer faith. Something will come of it. Maybe something more brilliant than I thought of this morning.
Perhaps it’s the lack of sleep that’s causing my overactive imagination to see great waves of inspiration flowing back to me as I pound away on these keys as fast as I can. Not stopping is the secret. I think that’s what calls the ideas back. After all, if I keep moving my fingers across the keyboard something has to come out right?
So, I continue to force myself to compose no matter what the result. I originally started this technique when I used a website called 750words.com. I joined it in order to get myself into the habit of writing regularly when life had overtaken me. It’s a silly site that rewards you with animal badges for meeting certain writing milestones.
For example, I earned the Flamingo badge for writing 750 words or more for 10 days. And the albatross for 30 days in a row. But I’m especially proud of my blue horse. I entered a writing challenge and completed it. Don’t ask me what the challenge was though, I have no idea.
I stopped using the site though, once I had enough client work to fill up my time and I was writing regularly again. As it turns out, one of my recent of client wanted blogs between 1000-1500 words. Writing four of those a week I now find myself struggling to write short content – unless of course, I’m staring at the empty abyss.
But in hindsight, it isn’t exactly empty, is it? Out of my blank mind, I managed to pull out over 500 words at this point and revisit a fond memory of a blue horse I earned years ago. And I’ve also found my imagination still works because I can hear those little creative buggers now, marching their way back like they haven’t got a clue they missed anything. I’ll catch up with them and make some notes so that tomorrow they shall meet the world of Steemit!
I hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'm very interested in how you handle it when all your ideas slip away and leave you with a blank mind. After all, you don’t want to waste it.