Geez. That's one of my biggest pet peeves actually and I do it all the time. "Finding the Write Mood". Oh how delicious! Do you see what he did there? Instead of "right" he used "write"! It's oh so clever you see, because he is writing about writing and not righting! Oh jolly good. Chuckle chuckle. Grr. Anyway...

I'm not in the right/write mood. I'm working on a play adaptation of... something that will come out in a future issue of READ... and as much as I stare at the book in front of me or hover my fingers over the keyboard, I just know that anything I attempt will come across as unpleasant and sub-par. I didn't even want to write this blog entry about it. That's how much I'm spacing right now. Heh. spacing.                           Get it?

Anyway, something good must come out of this. Someone must help me. Surely you know what I'm tallking about? You have deadlines in school that have to be met. Do you ever sit down to write a paper and soon find yourself face first in your book? Or slamming your forehead into your desk? Or screaming internally? The phase passes in time, but as you stew in it, it seems as if there is no end to the non-creative pit of doldrums you slog about in. Is it laziness? Sure it is. It's also a normal part of being a writer (or any kind of artist for that matter). There will be good. There will be bad. And God help us, there will be ugly. When you're pressed with a paper's deadline or due date and you're stuck in the awful land of nothingness, try something like this.

Just write.

Forget the paper and spout out all your bad feelings. Write about how you can't write. By the time you're done with your tirade, you might actually find that you're rejuvenated and ready to go. Then again, you might feel worse. If that's the case, walk away. Go for a run. Watch bad T.V. Eat a cookie. Eat twelve cookies. Turn up the music and dance on your bed. Play catch with your Dad. Play frisbee with your dog. Go shopping. Buy me something nice. Read a book. Call a friend. Do a handstand. Ride your bike. Take a hike. Eat a snickers. I hear they really satisfy you. Think of new and better slogans for existing products. Post a comment on this blog. Tell us how you can't stand writer's block. How it pains you. What you do to overcome it. What you do when you can't overcome it. Pick a star out of the sky and name it.

Start all over again.

The mood isn't always there and you can't always find it and you can't always fight it. But at least you can write about it. Right? Right?!?!

I dunno. Let me know.