TURN THE FAUCET ON! #WRITEAPAGEADAY #BLOGCHATTER

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                                                           The Write Practice

There are days when the ink dries up and the mind refuses to function! Those days when life catches up with you, holds you by the ankles and trips you over.

Maybe today is one of those days, when I have no real theme in mind to write about, no worthy subject to wax eloquent on. Yet, my fingers tap on the keyboard, hoping that a matchstick of an idea will strike and start a fire.

Whether the fire will stay a tiny spark, or blaze into a mighty conflagration, is surely up to me. As Earl Nightingale put it, “Everything begins with an idea.” An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. But a mind teeming with ideas is the fountainhead of creativity.

What is creativity? “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” So said Albert Einstein who was certainly more creative and more sagacious than most. In today’s world, there are so many professions that depend on creativity, involving the breaking out of established patterns to observe things in a way quite different from the mundane.

Maybe it is a glimpse into a world that tilts towards the magical, the bizarre or the crazy, but it is a world that is intriguing enough to hold one captivated. It was Robert Frost who brought out this idea in his wonderful poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ in which the poet spoke out at two roads that stretched out before him. He looked at one and then took the other which was grassy and not as well trodden on, signifying that it had been less used than the other.

He left the first road for another day, knowing however that he would never go back there. The poet sensed that one day in the future he would sigh and say,

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference."

          Maybe that is right for most professions, including writing. People spend their earlier days getting an education that will aid them in attaining the job that they aspire to. Many end up in prominent positions at the end of their lives, some fall by the wayside. A few change horses mid-stream, and turn away to take the road not taken, veering towards a profession that they never really aspired for. These brave hearts move out of their comfort zones, work their hearts out in order to succeed in their second professions. Many authors often hold primary jobs, and spend their leisure time writing. It is only when they gain the confidence that they will be able to sustain themselves through their creativity that they take writing up as a full-time activity. Brave are the ones who can afford to do so, because writing is an exacting mistress, not one who will be tamed, or one who will give of her favours with ease.

There are days when the ink dries up and the mind refuses to function! Those days when life catches up with you, holds you by the ankles and trips you over.

Those are the days when you go back to a quote which has always made sense, especially since the person who created the quote was an extremely prolific writer who churned out reams of novels based on the Wild West.

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow till the faucet is turned on.”

Louis L’Amour

 

574 words


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