Lessons Learned From a Toddler

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” - Albert Einstein

The past week my life has been topsy-turvy. My imagination has been boosted into overdrive. My written words are short and appear in bursts of colors. I’ve read the same several dozen books over and over again. This creative surge has nothing to do with my current projects. I didn’t discover some super pill or eat a magic mushroom. My husband and I have simply spent the past 5 days with my 2 ½ year old grandson while his parents are away.

I see him frequently because they live nearby. But regular visits can’t compare to the exhausting responsibility of being a round-the-clock caregiver. I keep reminding myself, I’d done this before and survived. My grown daughter and said grandson are my proof.

Though I can’t remember the last time I felt this tired, and my normal routine is way out of whack, it’s been a fabulous experience because he’s reminded me about the important things in life. Such as:

It’s perfectly fine to burst out into a song in the middle of the grocery store, if the mood strikes.

Getting down on your hands and knees to look at a bug crawling in the driveway provides a whole new perspective to the world. The expectation of a reply to the question, “Where’s he going?” can act as a verbal writing prompt.

Sometimes you should stop everything you’re doing to spin in circles in the living room for no particular reason.

The most important use of a dining room table is to make a tent. Forts can be made out of any available materials.

It’s possible to travel in space, back in time, to the beach, or to undiscovered lands without leaving your bedroom.

Stuffed animals and other inanimate objects have a distinctive voice of their own and love to say what they’re thinking.

Kissing an owie and then placing a Dora or Diego Band-Aid on the spot really does make the hurt go away.

Crayons make great rocket ships.

An entire house can become the Village of Sodor for Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

I’m confident now, that the next time I come up against the brick wall of writer’s block or my muse goes on an unplanned hiatus, I won’t panic as I’ve done in the past. Instead, I’ll simply sit back and try to look at the world through the eyes of a child.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tags: Einstein, Toddler, Imagination, writer’s block, muse,

Bare Facts about Writers

“If God had meant us to walk around naked, he would never have invented the wicker chair.” –Erma Bombeck

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I was intrigued by the title of a blog that I recently ran across while searching for something totally unrelated. I couldn’t resist. I pointed my cursor and clicked on, The Naked Truth: Authors Who Write in the Buff. It may be more than you ever wanted to learn about some of the world’s famous authors, but I thought I’d share it with you because it made me laugh.

According to the article, Victor Hugo used nudity as a cure for writer’s block by having his servant take away all his clothes, leaving him with only pen and paper so he’d have nothing to do but write. Ernest Hemingway wrote standing up in the nude with his typewriter about waist height; D. H. Lawrence liked to climb trees in the nude before coming down to write; and Edmond Rostand wrote nude in the bathtub to keep from being interrupted by his friends. The only female on the list was Agatha Christie, who, it seems, liked to write anywhere in the nude.

For more details about these writers and several others I didn’t mention, you need to read the blog.

I can’t see myself taking up this rather unusual writing habit. Then again—the next time I encounter a supreme case of writer’s block…

How do you feel about baring it all in the pursuit of writing?

Thanks for stopping by.

Tags: Erma Bombeck, Victor Hugo, Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, Rostand, Agatha Christie, writer's block

Writer’s Block

It’s three-weeks now that The Ride has been next in line on the ArcheBooks production list and it’s making me nervous; actually, it’s making me crazy. I know I said I wasn’t going to obsess about it—I was going to go on with my life and just let it happen when it happens. That was easy to say, but not so easy to do.

I tried to go on. I really did. But, I guess I’m the type that likes to have one project neatly wrapped up and taken care of before immersing myself in another.

It was easier to think about other projects when there were manuscripts ahead of mine, but now for some reason, I can’t stand just dangling with my toe so close to the edge. “Move,” I scream silently in the mornings when I check the status. “Move!” I scream silently again in the evenings. Silent screams do not help. Maybe I should be more vocal!

I think my frustration is causing writer’s block. I sit down at the computer, ready to work, but nothing flows. It’s painful. I couldn’t even come up with a topic to blog about until Kim mentioned writing on writer’s block. How obvious. Why didn’t I think of that?

I was skimming through Stephen King’s book, On Writing, hoping for some inspiration. I don’t know about the inspiration part but I did read something that made me laugh. It also helped me to realize that all writers must suffer an occasional block sometime during their career.

It’s about James Joyce and King does mention that it is probably more myth than truth, but it is still a good story. King writes:

“According to the story, a friend came to visit him one day and found him sprawled across his writing desk in a posture of utter despair.

“‘James, what’s wrong?’ the friend asked. ‘Is it the work?’

“Joyce indicated assent without even raising his head to look at the friend. Of course it was the work; isn’t it always?

“‘How many words did you get today?’ the friend pursued.

“Joyce (still in despair, still sprawled facedown on his desk): ‘Seven.’

“‘Seven? But James…that’s good, at least for you!’

“‘Yes,’ Joyce said, finally looking up. ‘I suppose it is…but I don’t know what order they go in.’”

Have any of you suffered from writer’s block? If so, what did you do to relieve it? I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you next week.

Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride (to be released by ArcheBooks Publishing)
janekennedysutton@gmail.com
http://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/


Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, Stephen King, On Writing, writer’s block, James Joyce