Day 4 of The Quest for the Quill of Inspiration: Procrastination

"Procrastination is opportunity's natural assassin." ~Victor Kiam (1926-2001)~

I am the Master of Procrastination, ashamed as I am to say. It's an annoying habit as well as the most difficult to overcome. I've been fighting it for years, and just when I think I've got it licked, it snakes its way back into my daily activites...or lack thereof. It's like a cancer that won't go into remission, no matter how many different types of chemotherapy I undergo.

Everything in my life, including writing to dyeing my hair has been affected by this cancerous procrastination. In fact, as I type, I'm fighting the urge to wait until later to finish this blog. It's a terrible thing, this procrastination. It's been one of the biggest contributing factors to the writer's block I've been suffering from recently. God, will it ever leave me in peace so that I may write the novel I've had percolating through my brain for years now? I need a miracle.

I find that I am almost struggling today to write, almost like I have nothing to say but I'm forcing myself to. In a way, I am forcing my writing, like a caterpillar working its way out of the cocoon. I'm having a hard time envisioning the colorful butterfly that will emerge, but I am pressing on regardless. I'm determined that when I'm in a mood like I am right now, persistence will lead meto the ability to crank out page upon page of blessed, divinely inspired writing.

As I think about procrastination, I think of how I will surely fail if I succomb to the seductive pull of delay. I'm doing nothing but showing myself my lack of commitment and desire to actually make my writing practice work. I really don't feel like disappointing myself any further; I've done it for too long already.

The time is now. I wait no longer.

Day 3 of The Quest for the Quill of Inspiration: An Attitude of Gratitude

"This is a gift I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions...But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute and I am thankful for it." ~Shakespeare~

Up until recently, I was having a severe case of Writer's Block. It was incredibly frustrating for me, as I had all this free time to devote to writing, but nothing would come out. I was experiencing a severe dip in my writing swagger, and it was plain making me mad. I felt like my voice was being silenced; that I was blocked somehow from tapping into that place where normally, the words just flowed like Niagra Falls.

That dip in my swagger prompted a sweeping change, and once I set the wheels in motion to overcome it, inspiration virtually surrounded me at every turn. I found Jack Heffron's wonderful book and I was pointed in the direction of creating a blog. Being put in the company of like-minded souls who shared my passion for writing helped immensely as well. Thus was the end of the block as I knew it. And boy, was I grateful.

It is with an attitude of gratitude that I say I'm happy I had that block. If it weren't for that huge, granite-like, hindering block, I'd have had no inclination to try and move it. After flexing my muscles for quite sometime, I was finally able to move it to see what was waiting beyond. I was more than pleasantly surprised at the enchanting scenery before my eyes.

It was like a magic wand had been waved over me and everything around me; my world literally seemed to sparkle with inspiration. That project I'd been wanting to start just unfolded in front of my eyes, as if by magic. I couldn't get to the laptop soon enough, because the words were literally rushing through my head. Ideas sprang forth, refreshing my mind like a spring in a desert oasis. I was parched for so long that I am still standing with my head under the water, drinking in long, satisfying pulls. I can't get enough.

Suffice to say, the challenge of being creatively blocked served me very well. I actually gave a little prayer of thanks to that stubborn block, for it has helped me do things I never would have thought of doing before. This blog being one of those things. I've decided to look at my blocks as necessary tools for my creativity. Without them, I'd still be tapping the paper in frustration. If I happen to encounter one again, I'll know just what to do: Thank it first.