Getting Started
Years ago, like thirty years, i saw an little animated short film called "Getting Started" at one of those ubercool film festivals that universities are so fond of.
The movie depicts the difficulties of just getting started.
A man sits at a piano, hands poised above the keyboard, ready to play. He stops, deciding that perhaps a nice cup of tea would be just the thing.
Back at the piano with tea, hands raised, when his pet mouse appears. He talks to the mouse.
He scratches his nose, he gets up to take a phone call, he stares out the window.
And so on.
I've never been one to blog daily, but i begin to recognize that one of the advantages of it would be that you would not have to get started, you just keep going.
It's like those sexless dry spells that married (and i suppose unmarried) couples go through. After a while, you have to stop waiting for the time to be right, and just DO IT fer crissakes!
Writing is something i do. In many it's ways necessary to me. But the longer i go without writing, the harder it is for me to get started.
Excuses:
1) Things are going on in my life that are hard to talk about. Not necessarily BAD thing, but things.
2) My daughter ferreted out my blog and reads it. That i feel a tad stifled by that.
3) The cat needed to be petted.
4) And so on.
25 comments:
Funny you should post this now, and me be the first, 'cos I'm about to get started myself. Again. For the jillionth time. :)
Hi yerself!
I love it when you write.
Ah, yes. Momentum. Sometimes I think if I stop I'll just, well, sleep.
amen sista. what you said. except the part about the daughter and the cat.
seriously, this is me. i want to start back BUT....getting started, man. getting started.
i need to think on it.
irrelephant, we can do nothing else except keep getting started, again. Hi!
flutter, thank you. What you say means a lot to me.
steph, yes, sleep. that would be a luxury, and to be alive we cannot stop, and sleep.
robin, you snuck in under my comment. Getting started is hard. But i hope you will, because i want to hear it.
You forgot to mention how your body finds excuses for you. Too hot, too cold, need to pee, need another shower, hungry, need chocolate, need to water the plants.
I am the Queen of Writer's Block.
I was beginning to wonder if you were dead:)
Please write, I miss you.
Well, clearly you ran out of excuses because hey, another post! I just HAVE to post every few days, I get so antsy if I don't, it's become such a habit. I don't let any excuses get in the way, but lack of inspiration sometimes does.
1. Blog when you want. Forcing it is too hard, and awkward-feeling.
2. I like that label. ;-)
I know which little film you are talking about! :-) (I love it when someone mentions something obscure and I actually know it. Am a huge animation buff here!)
It is difficult to navigate a dry spell, so I hear you.
I'm a writer. I self-identify as a writer. Getting started is often THE most difficult part of being a writer...
You're talking to a woman who started writing a book about 13 years ago and is only just now done with it. Mostly.
It's hard to get back into the Blogging groove for all the reasons you mentioned. Wow, and remember the days when it was compulsive?
The NFB is a treasure trove of animated shorts like that. :-)
I know very well what you mean about getting started. I keep drifting away and back again.
That movie sounds amazing, and SO TRUE! There is always something else to do besides what you SHOULD be doing!
Do you mind tending to my cat, when yours has been satisfied? He's taking a nap on my keyboard.
I find that just writing rubbish you know you're not going to use helps with the 'blank page syndrome'.
Having said that, my Mother-in-law telling me she "just looks at the pictures" on my blog and promising that she "never reads whatever I am doing" killed my blog dead.
She is lovely, I just barely know her and I'm unreasonably worried about what people think.
How crap.
Hi.
I'll be here when you think of something, trying to think of something.
hearts, hot flash, need a sweater, cat wants in, radio too loud, radio too soft. Yeah, i know what you mean.
deb, nope, still kickin'!
nick, i don't feel any compulsion to post, i wait for inspiration, sometimes in vain.
peevish, i'm no fan of forcing it. and Hi. :)
cagey, i actually found that link by searching, and just watched it again. It's such a great comment on a universal experience.
mrs. chili, truer words my friend, truer words.
nancy, i am SO PROUD of you, just like i actually has something to do with it.
gordo, i will br going back to that site. I adore funny little animated films.
cow, take some time, some day, to click on the link and watch. It's perfect.
no idea my ass!, yeah, like your cat would even LET me pet him.
nell, that should be no problem, as much of what i write really is rubbish! :) An MIL could totally kill my will to write, they have that superpower.
de, you are an inspiration to me. Really.
I have been having a very hard time getting started blogging lately. And god knows I have plenty to say at all times...
Ditto xcept 4 the cat. + who cares or wants to hear whine, whine and more whine. I keep telling myself, "This too will pass."
I'm going through the same thing! Been busy, I guess. :-)
Also, I think I just discovered that my MOTHER-IN-LAW is secretly reading my blog! What is bothering me the most is that she hasn't told me. My crazy hormonal reaction is to do something wretchedly passive-agressive via le blog...does that make me a bad person?
Well if you find you aren't up to writing this weekend.. you can always road trip it to the house of cheese! Bring packing tape lol...
Funny when my life gets the busiest and I have a lot to say~ I don't have the time to put it in words... If I have the time? That means I got nuttin!
Yeah, I keep falling into that trap.
Although I'd have to say that a cat needing petting is an absolute emergency.
gina, i think it's just the effort involved in sitting down and writing. Or not.
luckyzmom, yeah, lots to whine about. Gets REALLY old.
princess, OMG! Not THE MIL! And not to even tell you? That's sneaky.
cheesy, i'll bring some ice for your knee.
maggie, that's what he thinks too.
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