Thursday, August 4, 2011

Summer Doldrums

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Brain mush. It's not writer's block. That's too wimpy a phrase.

No, this is complete absence of ideas, thoughts, words. It's all the more frustrating as I feel the urge to write "important" things, things that fade like a vapor when I sit down at the computer with my fingers actually on the keys.

Brain freeze.

It's not a new phenomenon. Every summer it arrives as regularly as clockwork with the heat and sun, my mind sinking into a snoozy, somnolent state. Maybe it isn't brain freeze, but fried brains.

Connected to that hazy, lazy condition is a conflicting awareness of time speeding by and the loss of opportunity. I will never retrieve the minutes and hours lost.

Instead of fretting, I choose to fill this time with reading. Or chores left undone in the winter. Or other interests pushed aside when I'm writing. Perhaps the summer doldrums are my brain's way of crying "Enough!" and forcing me to take a rest.

When I had my own home, I used to garden in the summer. And with the gardening, the digging in the dirt, the planting of flowers and vegetables, I had time to think. I suppose this is still my thinking time.

I have to admit I will be glad when fall returns and the summer doldrums are over.

anny

3 comments:

  1. I recently blogged about this.

    http://crystalcollier.blogspot.com/2011/07/take-that-writers-block.html

    There's always a way to overcome the doldrums. Best of luck!

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  2. It happens to me periodically. Summer isn't really any different than any other time of year. My productivity simply depends upon how busy I am.

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  3. I'm with you. I always suspect my characters have gone of on some wonderful adventure without me. I only hope they come back and share the tale.

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