Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Ebb and Flow (Julie)

A few weeks ago my family and I took a vacation to Tennessee. We chose a nice quiet cabin in the rolling farmlands close to two state parks. Both parks are popular for their rivers/waterfalls. I was a little worried that being the summer in the south, they might be dry or wimpy. However, to our good fortune the area had gotten some rain and quiet a storm before we arrived.
We had a wonderful time hiking beside rivers and over suspension bridges, in awe of the mighty power of the water. 

The first park we went to had a trail located at the dam. We arrived to the horrendously annoying sound of the siren wailing its warning to us that water was being released from the dam and the water level would rise to a dangerously high level.  

It got me to thinking that my writing is like a river. Sometimes the dam opens or the rain comes, and I'm flooded with ideas and on a writing "high". Other times, I'm dried up with little to nothing creative. It then becomes a waiting game until the rain comes or the dam opens.  
Do you ever feel that way?  That sometimes your writing is like the mighty rushing river and other times it's like a dry stream-bed. Ya got nothing. 

Though I do find encouragement in that even when the river is dry or not but a small trickle, it will eventually evolve into a beautiful, life changing marvel. 




3 comments:

  1. Yes, it certainly feels dry at times and raging with ideas at others.

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  2. Yes, and like the dam too - it’s there but it’s not coming out.

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  3. I can relate. Sometimes when I feel dry it's because I'm trying to force something in particular to work NOW. Like, for example, if I feel I need to write chapters in order... or address a critiquer's comments... or if there's a plot hole I feel I need to fix NOW. My self-imposed pressure often impedes the flow, and I find if I can just take a step back and try working on something else (like brainstorming ideas in on phone, or using a craft writing book as a spring board for new ideas), then I can sometimes get the creativity flowing again. Nice post :-)

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