So why is it that when you are trying to write something totally brilliant your brain churns out nothing but mush? All your ideas are horrible, your plot lines have gapping holes and at the end of the day all you have to show for your troubles is a pile of crumpled and partially singed paper. But when you’re trying to get to sleep because you’ve just gotten home from your grueling job and you haven’t slept well in a week, your brain suddenly goes into overdrive. Instead of catching up on your zzzz’s you’re vaulting from bed every ten seconds to write something down because you know if you wait, by morning all you’ll have left is a pile of mush. I think the Muses just have a very sick sense of humor. They’re all, sure you can write brilliantly but you won’t get any sleep so in a year’s time you’ll be a raving lunatic. Provided, of course, that you aren’t all ready crazy. Maybe that’s what happened to me. Hmmm, something to think on I guess.
Now here is something else that bothers me. When I can’t sleep because my mind won’t shut up, I try to calm my thoughts. I usually start with an empty, blank room. Very calming and soothing right? You would think so, but oh no. Me, I’m suddenly annoyed that the room is blank so I have to start decorating it or blowing it up or something and my mind is off again, a billion miles a minute. So then I try to count sheep. Very traditional. Now I don’t know about you, but my sheep are always jumping over a fence. One sheep over, two sheep over, and so on. But now I’m wondering, why the hell are they jumping fences? I mean have you ever seen a sheep jump a fence? No, neither have I. I’ve ridden a sheep once when I was like five. It was some ridiculous rodeo my parents entered me in. Thought it would be loads of fun. Ha ha ha. Thanks a lot! I hung on by clinging to the side of the sheep and the only thing that kept me from falling off was the overwhelming fear that I would fall and be trampled. Then my death certificate would read: Killed by sheep. A rather pathetic end really. Anyway that’s my random rant for the day. I’m done now.
You just described the demented muses that toy with me -- the ones before NaNo (the part about mush) and the ones after NaNo (the brilliant ideas). Sick sense of humor, those muses.
ReplyDeleteAnd excellent point about sheep jumping over fences. Hilarious how you go all analytical about it -- instead of counting and drifting off to sleep, you're all, "Now hold on a minute, why are they jumping?!?"
I posted about NaNoWriMo recently -- check it out! You got a shout out. :)
Heh, my word verification for my previous comment was "detries." That's a great non-word:
ReplyDeleteWhen I can't fall asleep no matter what I do, I detries thinking about jumping sheep."
Love the blog background! Btw, it's Cristin here (from Nano)--Boquinha shared your blog with me, and I'd have to say I can relate to the whole sheep thing definitely NOT working. You know what helped me get really tired this morning (at 4 o'clock!) when I couldn't sleep? Organizing my bookmarks on the computer. It was incredibly boring, and after about an hour of it, I was really tired and went back to bed. :)
ReplyDelete