The only way I know to do that is to begin proprioceptively, write what I hear, listen to what I write. When anything comes up that I want to get off the proprioceptive pony and explore, I will.
Without making a big deal out of it, I will every few days post my morning weight in the title bar. Just as a way of keeping track during this month. So there it is up there, 155. Let's just see what happens in the next 30 days.
Charles and I have returned to our blog, to write something together. Maybe later I'll say more about that, but we're just getting started. We're looking again into the screenplay we attempted in 1994, Mixed Signals. I don't know if that will turn out to be it or not, but it came up first, and it's what got us back into the idea, the strong desire actually, to write something together.
What do I mean by "write something together"? Well, I mean using both our minds and imaginations and other skills. Combining our thoughts in a creative action. What stopped us before is that we were never able to climb the hill of story. We got stalled. What do I mean by "stalled?" Like a car that just stops in the middle of the road and won't go any farther. No matter how much you turn the starter, it just sits there. Stalled.
Breathe. When I read back over what I wrote and some of Jenny, Sara, and Rosemary's comments from 2009, I was surprised by how fresh and interesting it was. This isn't feeling fresh and interesting this morning.
And with that sentence, my fingers stop. I want to have the feeling of doing something fresh and interesting. When I don't feel that, I get discouraged. Momentum drains, enthusiasm fades, and something in me droops. Like a rose that opens part way, then for whatever reason--heat, dryness, bugs, it stops blooming and droops on its stem. That's what it feels like. I get the writing droops.
That may be something I'll be looking at here during the coming month. As Charles and I pursue our project, to write something together, I'll be watching out for the writing droops, to see when and how they arise, or more accurately, how they descend. And if there are antidotes available to me, to us.
For now, here's a website I was looking at last night. http://plotwhisperer.blogspot.com/
It's kind of a messy site, and I haven't gotten into it yet, but there may be real value there. Help and guidance in plotting, specific guidance, not just abstract encouragement. Worth looking at if you're a writer and subject to the writing droops like me.
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