It’s that time of year again. In less than 30 hours I’ll be back in Kingston ready (pretending to at least) to tackle my final year of Law School. Before that comes the part I hate the most… packing my suitcases. It sucks. I’m usually a semi-organized person but when it comes to packing there’s always something I forget when I’m halfway to the airport. Last year it was my Kindle and the year before that I actually forgot my carry on. You’d think after all the back and forth over the past five years I’d have got it right by now… weelll I haven’t, not even close.
I keep walking into my room looking at the mess I’ve made by pulling out clothes from my closet and the half packed (being generous here) suitcases and walking out again. I can’t decide what I want to put in or what I should leave at home because I know that deciding to leave something home means that as soon as I get to Jamaica I’ll realize I need it. This walking in then walking out thing will continue for a while until eventually – slowly and painfully I’ll have to sit down and make the tough decisions and get those bags packed.
It’s got me thinking about writing. If I’m honest, everything gets me thinking about writing. I’m that obsessed or maybe I’m just that much of a nerd. At any rate, I’m sat here thinking ‘How is overcoming writer’s block any different to packing these suitcases?”
I know I blame my Muse a lot and most of the times she deserves it! She is a bit sadistic (maybe I should pair her up with Christian Grey :P), very fickle, has a warped sense of humour and to be honest is a bit of a lush (don’t tell her I told you so else I’ll pay for years). However, there must come a time when I sit at my laptop and look at the absolute mess my plot is in. I’ll have to admit that I can’t decide which characters to keep, which story line to abandon, which characters to merge or kill off… and the beat goes on. There’re only so many more times that I can close out Microsoft Word and open the Sims 3 instead. Eventually I’ll have to slowly and painfully deal with the messes. Because writer’s block doesn’t only come about because of troublesome Muses but also when there’s something that needs to be fixed. It just so happens I hate fixing things. But then again, I also hate packing… and I’m going to have to get it done before 8:30 tomorrow morning… and I will.
Maybe it is time for me to stop allowing my Muse to run this game (also, keep that to yourself – wouldn’t want her finding out I’m plotting against her 🙂 )
Remember the story of Heracles (we mostly know him by his Roman name – Hercules) when he needed to bring Cerberus (Hades’ guard dog) to the surface to fulfill his final assignment? Hades told him that could only be done if he subdued Cerberus with his fists alone. That was frankly a very jerky thing to do. The dog literally guarded the gates of the Underworld… it had THREE heads for goodness sakes. But alas, as psychotic (no offence Hades) as the request was Heracles prepared himself for battle and was eventually victorious though he was left in whole world of injury. It’s not that I’m comparing my Muse to Cerberus… honestly I’m not ;). I’m possibly just referring to my writer’s block. I think I just felt my nose grow a tad but it doesn’t matter who I’m comparing to Cerberus. That’s moot. Both my Muse and this persistent writer’s block will soon be getting tamed. Rawr!
Photo Credit: “Lady With Travel Suitcase” by Sattva
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Cheers.
Rilzy
Adventures of a Caribbean Girl... who writes! 