Word Count Blogathon Day 9: Staring Down the Page

So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say,

and so often one regrets having marred it. 

~ Harold Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete

The urge to write is always with me ~ a slow, agonizing burn just below the skin.  Unfortunately, the only times I attempt to cool the flames is when I am supposed to be doing something else!  Then I write, scribble, and underline like one gone mad.

Give me a whole day: ten or twelve pristine and unblemished hours and I can write. . . .nothing.  Not.  One.  Bloody.  Word.  No coherent thoughts, useable imagery or discernable feelings.  Nothing except the overwhelming urge to do anything but write!  I stare at the huge expanse of white paper and have a sudden urge to cook.  Or call up a friend.  Or go for a walk.  Or sleep.  Argh!  Why is that? 

A good writer needs not only raw talent, but plenty of self-discipline.  And good writing habits.  The number one of which is writing every day.  Hence my joining the Blogathon.  And yet here I am, three blank days haunting me!  And that only partly due to the imbibing of good alcohol over the weekend  ~ Saturday was the Kentucky Derby.

Friday I had two great ideas to blog about; Saturday the same.  But two late nights in a row went by with nary a word dripped upon the page.  When Sunday rolled around, I had lost all four ideas.  Mourn.  Weep. Gnashing of teeth.

Lucky for me, I had been doing my Morning Pages for enough time that I had the threads of other thoughts, lines of poetry, and snippets of ideas for other posts just waiting to be woven into a completely new idea.

So write every day, whether you post or not.  It may save writing face in the near future!

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela