Non-Fiction

Water Water Everywhere

Alex

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1863 (Published)

The creative process is like a three legged stool, the legs being motivation, inspiration and ability. I like to think I have a little of the latter and varying degrees of the first two. But the seat of the stool, if this isn’t pushing the metaphor to breaking point, is time.

I used to have a lot of time on my hands. I know I did because I can drive a car in Gran Tourismo on the Play Station like a professional race driver and I can perform a Wastelander manoeuvre in Jak and Daxter faultlessly. Now the Playstation sits idle in it’s aluminium briefcase awaiting a time when I have no need to write any more. And of course work doesn’t demand so much time of me.

The problem is I do need to write and I do need to work (otherwise the bank come and take the house).

OK so this is a bit of a procrastination post I suppose, how come I have the time to write this and nothing else? I think because I’ve been so frustrated over the last couple of months about the lack of time I’m able to dedicate to creative writing that now, when I have a few moments I wanted to vent. Not at anyone or anything in particular, just those appallingly common circumstances where an idea is flitting around in your head, waiting to be disgorged onto the page and a lack of time, a distraction at work or a real world incident snatches it from you.

I need to express my exasperation to move on and make some progress, to shed the leaden cloak of frustration. Frustration for me is a vicious circle where writing is concerned, it smothers my creativity and in so doing amplifies itself. Crap huh?

It’s like the story I started to write in response to the suggestions made on our birthday post. It’s about one third complete. I broke off to deal with RL shit a couple of weeks ago and it’s languished in that condition on my hard disk ever since.

Well, it’s Spring Bank this weekend so, deep breath and “Snap yourself out of it Alex!”.

And if you were wondering, the image is one of mine, taken in 1988. It kind of sums up my mood, glum and hemmed in. If you’re really interested it’s on Kodak Tmax 1200, push processed to about 6000 ISO, taken on a Yashica FX-D with a 50mm lens at about f22. I found it in the loft. I lost a lot of the negatives that I took when I was into photography years ago and the prints went with them. My own fault, they were accidentally thrown away during a house clear-out. The ones I found got me thinking about doing more photography. Hmmm.

6 thoughts on “Water Water Everywhere”

  3. Ideas are strange things, there are ideas and ideas, and because RL will never fade away, and keeps on rolling on, letting some ideas go is important, but at the same time, an idea only needs a second to jot in one sentence. If the remainder hangs around on the inside, then the sentence is enough to trigger the idea, if not, it may not be worthy time-wise. Writing’s strange, not all ideas are worthwhile ideas, and it sounds odd to say that, but that’s what it can be. Some ideas flow through right to the end, and on the re-read it can be the ‘wtf’ factor, and some may not move beyond the first page, and there are so many combinations. The frustration never ends with writing, but this can also be a motivator as well.

  4. Alex- i understand your feelings….just know that you are not alone. just keep writing as you do and we will keep reading….xoxo

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