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Wednesday, July 9, 2014

I'm in a funk, a writing and painting funk

I'm in a funk right now. I can't seem to write or paint. The last painting I worked on made me want to gag. Do I dare post it here for you to gag on as well? They say misery loves company. I'll think about it as I write this post.

My last short story presented to Critique Circle garnered some comments for improvement that means I'm actually going to have to work on the story again, actually do some serious re-writing, if I want to make it better. Of course that depends on whether I agree with some of the criticism I've received. I've yet to really concentrate on it, because I'm in this funk and can't get out.

I have one more story to present to Critique Circle, but, because I'm in this funk, I just can't go through the simple steps involved. One of the problems is that I filled up my jump drive and had to change it out for a new one. In order to post the story to C.C. I'll have to plug in the previous jump drive, but I'm in too much of a funk to bother with it.

Add to that that my printer quit working and has been down for about a week, and I was seriously thinking about buying a new printer, for which I have no money, it has added to my funkiness, and my reluctance to write, because I must have a printer to write. Yes, in this electronic, paperless world we nominally live in, I must have a printer in order to work. I have to hold something in my hand to read that I can actually write on, scribble on, cross out, add in, and crumple up and throw in the trash can if I don't like it (I don't want to throw my computer in the trash can if I don't like what I've written.) I know there's an electronic trash can I can throw the document into on the computer, but I need the tactile sensation of crumpling it up first.

I was fooling around with my printer, trying to figure out what was wrong, when I came across a page that gave me the option of chatting live with someone to troubleshoot and fix my printer (maybe), so I chatted with someone in India, no doubt, and I believe he fixed the problem. The only problem is that I'm out of black ink (I wasn't out of black ink when I began the chat session) and must buy another canister of it before I can test the printer to see if it really works. I've got to get enough out of this funk to go buy another canister. That means I have to leave my house. That's something I like to do--leave the house--because it gives me an excuse to avoid working, which I need because I'm in a funk anyway.

Any suggestions on how to get out of this funk?

3 comments:

Claude Forthomme said...

I only came to your post now! I imagine by now you're out of your funk...Just in case you ever fall into it again, I have this advice (which is what I do every time I fall in a funk - hey, we writers all do!): get out of the house, do something else, totally unrelated to writing!

But I didn't know you paint too (I do too!) That's interesting, relatively few writers do but those that do are very good writers, ha ha! I hope you do a blog post soon to tell us all about it. For me painting is a great relaxation, an escape really from writing. Doesn't is work that way for you?

Claude Forthomme said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
writing and living by Richard P Hughes said...

Claude, yes I'm out of my writer's funk. I've been getting a lot done lately.

As for painting, I haven't been doing much, because I'm highly involved in my writing at the moment. Just not enough time for both right now.

Thank you for commenting.