Shaking the Rust Off

Well here we are, another week gone by as we march ever onward towards the future. It has been a busy week around here, with lots of good things happening in booth my professional and private lives. Work is starting to appreciate the hard work and the skills I bring to the table and I am being allowed to exercise my talents more and more. It is a good thing to be able to work on projects and after finishing them, hold the final product in your hands. There is a sense of accomplishment and no matter how small that feeling is, it is a very good thing. Meanwhile I have spent my nights finally putting the finishing touches on the apartment and making small repairs here and there. Now that I have secured my job I can hang my photos and settle in for a nice long stay here. All in all it has been a fantastic week, very relaxing and refreshing.

I even managed to get in a bit of writing this week. I find it amazing how fickle writing can be, one moment it flows like water the next it trudges along. Lets take a look back to just a few weeks ago, the 1st of August is not only when Special Topics are posted but also when new stories are posted to the Musings of Calliope reading group. The week coming up to the deadline I had a bunch of half written stories but none that were finished. I picked one I like, one I was feeling good about and ran with it. One week later, I had a complete story, one that was easy to write because the words and images just came to me. I sat down and wrote and wrote and wrote, it was a great feeling. Since then I have not written until this past week. It is one of my larger stories one that I am both really proud of and eager to share. Sentences came together that didn't read well, descriptions failed to capture the mood. I was rusty after a few weeks of inactivity. I have struggled with trying to find a way to stay productive, even during times when I feel rusty but perhaps I have been going about it wrong. I found that if I can't effectively write down original ideas during times like these, it is helpful to look back on my other completed stories and get in some much needed revision work. Not only does this help mysteries reach some minor form of finished polish but it usually inspires me to creatively write again.

While I think it may be limited in its use, I wonder if this method of looking back can be applied to other mediums as well. Say you don't feel like painting, so you study your previous works examining them for things that could be improved, or looking at a video project and finding where a cut could be tighter or how a camera angle really distracts from the subject. Writing is unique in the way that it stays rather impermanent until it is published. One can literally go back to a piece written years ago and critique it on their computer, giving instant feedback. It is one of the many things I like about writing. As you know I have a pretty massive world that I have been steadily building for the past few years but I have all kinds of stories that I have written within that world. What is great is that as the world changes, as new details emerge or as new ideas take on solid forms, these stories can be updated quickly with the new and relevant information. That is something I can't do with a sketch or painting because once their final form is achieved it is that way forever.

So I will keep on writing and keep on creating new stories for my world and if I come across a day where it just isn't working, then I will turn to my large catalog of stories and notes for inspiration. The important thing is that I must not stop writing, or creating. I must not allow the rusty moments of life to bring me to a standstill. So the only alternative to that is to press forward, in one way or another; to shake the rust loose, keeping my mind limber and my fingers ever present at the keys.

Sayonara.