My creatures often talk to me when I least expect it. That’s why I keep them close. Sometimes they spring out of my subconscious when I’m relaxed. Mostly my make-believe characters and their stories come to me when I’m at the computer screen nagging them. Often though, they’ll come when I throw myself on the couch and think. I think and think and think about my characters and they’ll come. Other times my protagonists and their minions literally assail me when I’m stressed. When I’m driving down an impossibly narrow street in Florence (a most worrisome endeavour) and surprise! A problem that needed solving is cracked. It’s like, really? Now? You come to me now with this? When I can’t write it down? When I’m trying not to side-swipe that car? They will tell me why they are who they are in all sorts of situations. Such as what is in their backstory that explains why they are reacting in a certain way. The main thing is that I keep my creatures close.
Over the last two weeks I’ve mentioned staying close to your characters or as I sometimes call them, my creatures. This week I need to talk about invisible (actually, sometimes they are visible) forces that nudge me away from them. Distraction, derailment, disenchantment, digression - my Four Big D’s.
Next week I’ll write more about My Four Big D’s. I wrestle with the Four Big D’s daily. They appear out of so many things. Sure, my normal workday will distract me. But it’s not only gainful employment that detours me, diverts me. It can be something as bizarre as guilt.
Guilt that I haven’t walked the dog, guilt that I haven’t called my friend back, guilt that I haven’t answered any WhatsApp or Facebook Messages. Guilt about that email that’s been sitting in my Inbox for more than two days. Guilt manifests in me in so many ways and that guilt stops me from writing. Because everywhere I look there seems to be something I haven’t done. And those jobs or friends or colleagues should take precedence over my writing, surely? The front gate has moss all over it. Damn, I really have to scrub that off, I think every time I leave the house. Wait – I must water the garden! Hang on, if I don’t hand wash that dress it will sit in that basket for months. If I don’t shop for veggies there will be nothing fresh for tonight’s dinner. If I don’t call the skin doctor to get that mole checked out, I’ll get melanoma. Bloody hell! Then, to top it all off, I feel guilty if I don’t write! This is nuts. Was life always this busy, quite this full? Or am I creating all this stuff as a procrastination technique so that I don’t sit down and write?
Still, my creatures, my characters are with me. I work at keeping them alive. Even just a paragraph a day, a last muck around with them at night. Though guilt plagues me, I do manage to put something down every day to keep them alive.
Best I be off to water the garden now…
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If you’d like to share any comments or thoughts, I’d be happy to hear from you. Email me directly at lisacliffordwriter@gmail.com.