Saturday, 3 May 2014

A Product of Writer's Block. AKA: Cloud Ramblings

You know when you can't think of anything to write, you just sit and stare at your blank page and look this way and that letting thoughts wonder in and out of your head, and through and around and back and forth. Sometimes you rewind them and then fast forward them really quickly. Most times they just drift in and out like clouds, lazy white ones though, not the stormy ones, those usually stick around for a while, and anyway, they aren't really writing conducive clouds. The lazy white ones are, cumulus or cumulonimbus, or something or other. The feather ones will even do for a bit of writing, but not stormy, that's generally poem stuff and even then, they tend to come out disjointed and rather terrible. Suffice it to say, stormy clouds aren't great for the whole creative process.

So where was I? Ah yes, white clouds , the lazy ones specifically. Actually today isn't even a lazy white clouds kind of day, even on those days thoughts tend to stick every now and then, like when a big cloud comes along and stays a while. Today, nothing is sticking, today is a blue sky kinda day. Or at least a wispy cloud day, I dislike those little wispy ones, they are almost a tease. Might as well go for the all blue, or a partly cloudy, at least then you can sit and watch them pass and guess the shapes and let your imagination go running away with you. The wispy ones though, they might as well be smoke! In fact, they probably are. Stupid pollution, ruining my blue sky! I do like blue skies by the way, who doesn't? I'm sure there's someone out there who doesn't, trying to defy the mold and all that crap. But blue skies are great! They're pleasant and leave room for lots of sun, they're just not the best for thinking, you know? At least the kind of thinking that gets things done, or goes somewhere. I mean think about it! All that empty space, what's there to hold your thoughts in? Roofs? Yeah I suppose they can a little, but I find they usually hold them back a bit. Clouds are good for holding thoughts, they are allowed to float high and free and unhindered. Roofs are okay so long as you don't need too much thinking to do, or to high a thought to think. They're definitely good for those desk jobs, but if you ever have one that requires a lot of thoughts to be thinking, it can get awful crowded in there, like something fierce. And then of course it's just too noisy to think with all those thoughts floating around with no where to go. Sure opening a window sometimes helps, but then what? All the good ones, that is to say the smart, creative ones go out the window and you're left with the stupid ones, who of course are the noisier of the bunch.

I suppose you could write them down, but it still doesn't quite work as well. And besides, when you go back to them later they can be a confusing mess, or worse, a great thought but you're unable to remember where it was leading. Besides, aren't you suppose to be working!?

All said and done, if you have the time, writing thoughts down is probably the best method for keeping them. It gets them out, and if you're patient and persistent, cleans them up a bit. Sure sometimes they come out crap and all a bumbled, discombobulated mess. But sometimes they come out great, and you can even get a whole story out! Or at least the start of one, which is always exciting. Sure enough though, most times you just end up rambling about clouds, and you know what? That's okay, because you'll probably end up feeling better anyway. And before you know it, you did what you said you should do, which was write something, and look at you, you've almost done a page and a half of unimpeded writing. Who cares if the main subjects of the majority of the sentences were about clouds! Maybe you're a meteorologist, or a skyline painter or photographer, or maybe you just have your head in the clouds? Course I don't, it's a blue sky day...  

No comments:

Post a Comment