A Scenic Route
  • Welcome Back
  • Blog
  • About
  • Other Projects
    • Feathers In A Blender
    • From My Drawing Board
    • Backstage At The Blog
  • Privacy Policy

Refilling the Well

  • Family
  • Writing Journal

The blank space on my October blog calendar looms and I ask myself what I have been doing in terms of my writing. Because I have not been writing—much.

For me that’s unusual, but I have been doing something that I think might be important for all of us creative types. It’s called refilling the well, and the expression seems to fit. Somewhere in the groundwater that is my subconscious, there seems to be a need to recover from the constant turmoil that is the writing process. Between morning words, plot creation, character building, revising, and critiquing— all activities that seem to demand that I reach deep inside myself to find my own reactions and my own story, hidden though it may be, I always seem to find enough raw material there to keep going. I am constantly amazed to discover what is down there, but also fearful that one day I may go to the well and find it dry.

Running the well dry is not an option for me, as I’ve spent too much of my life not writing. But it does become overwhelming at times to think that, if I want to keep writing, I need to come up with new raw material every single day.

Thus, I indulge in unwinding these tensions by simply not attempting to create at all. For a week, it was enough to simply enjoy the limitless sky above my head, contemplate the unknowable depths of the water below, breathe in the salty air and let it penetrate into the pores of my skin. Sometimes it is enough to simply be alive.

(Photograph courtesy of me, and the San Juan Islands, Washington USA)

October 10, 2011 Kirsten

Post navigation

Countdown to NaNoWriMo → ← Playlist: Toujours

Calendar

May 2022
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Mar    

Recent Posts

Dearest Novel

Dearest Novel

Hopping on board the blog again, and look! It’s like riding a bicycle … just gotta get the rust out of my fingers. Not that I’ve been neglecting my writing, […]

More Info
IWSG: Fear, Love, and Writing

IWSG: Fear, Love, and Writing

It’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group, again. I know, don’t remind me– I was insecure two months ago, and haven’t been here since! But it’s the first Wednesday of the month […]

More Info
IWSG: Why Can't I Write Like Everyone Else?

IWSG: Why Can't I Write Like Everyone Else?

Welcome to this month’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group post, which you’ll notice is the only post on this blog since last month’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group post. I know. I […]

More Info
IWSG: The Siren Call of NaNoWriMo

IWSG: The Siren Call of NaNoWriMo

Wait. IWSG? And NaNoWriMo? I know you’re staring at your screen thinking, “What’s with all the acronyms? She’s really lost it now. Things haven’t been the same at A Scenic Route […]

More Info
Stories and Trees

Stories and Trees

The arrival of fall got me thinking … Since I love walking in the woods, I find it often feels as if my Muse is wandering in a forest full […]

More Info
Infinity Edge

Infinity Edge

Since when do Muses need vacations? Apparently mine does, which is why he’s been suspiciously absent from the blog. Oh, wait, here he is … I brush aside the palmetto […]

More Info
IWSG: Enjoying the View

IWSG: Enjoying the View

Warning: This will not be the usual Insecure Writer’s Support Group post. Believe it or not, this month I’m actually a secure writer. Shocking, I know, but it’s true! I’ll […]

More Info
The Meet My Character Blog Hop-Nick Moore

The Meet My Character Blog Hop-Nick Moore

The cold wind gives me goose bumps as climb the front steps to Nick Moore’s beach house, gripping my laptop to my chest like a lover. I knock on the […]

More Info
Powered by WordPress theme Stained Glass