Vague

Posted on 10/25/2015 by Andrew Reynolds

I got my replacement keyboard yesterday so I can type again.

This is one of those weeks where I haven’t been very creative.  I haven’t written anything and the only thing I’ve made in my workshop is a utility shelf (pictures on Wednesday).  It’s not that I’ve been “blocked” or lacked inspiration.  Quite the opposite – a lot is going on in my brain.  Up there are a million bits and pieces flying around, colliding, coalescing…  There are at least three writing projects and any number of things in the shop.  All vying for my attention and time.

It’s the old ‘menu’ problem.  I can only do one at a time and what if I pick wrong?  There’s where creative paralysis enters in. I don’t want to be wrong, so I do nothing, or order the tuna melt yet again. Couple that with working a full-time job, all the normal things of life that need to be done, along with all the limitations of the body, and sometimes there just isn’t any obvious creative output I can share.

That’s not a complaint, just a description of how my creative life goes sometimes.  It’s a balancing act between all the demands on my time and creative work I’d like to do.

Oh I could go on about focus, time management and “you can do anything if you’re motivated enough.”  Likely I’d end up sounding like a bad version of every motivational speaker you’ve ever heard.

The reality is that the creative process isn’t a straight path or even a clear path.  It has it’s curves, hills, valleys, fogs, rains, and at times I get lost.  At those times, the best thing to do is to simply stop, look around and go back to the last known place on the map and go off in different direction.

So I’ll just leave this week’s post a little short and a little vague while I move off to study the menu a little longer.

Till next week,
Andrew

About Andrew Reynolds

Born in California Did the school thing studying electronics, computers, release engineering and literary criticism. I worked in the high tech world doing software release engineering and am now retired. Then I got prostate cancer. Now I am a blogger and work in my wood shop doing scroll saw work and marquetry.
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11 Responses to Vague

  1. Glynis Jolly says:
    10/31/2015 at 8:16 am

    Yes, those ‘either, or’ moments that can turn into hours and days. There’s always the ‘monkey’ approach. You know, eeny, meeny, miney, moe.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Baydreamer says:
    10/27/2015 at 8:08 am

    This was well written, Andrew, and I completely relate to your last three lines of your first paragraph..I loved all the wordplay and metaphors and cheers to studying that menu again!

    Like

  3. frederick anderson says:
    10/26/2015 at 11:05 pm

    I’m beginning to think the next great evolutionary step for our species will involve something like a multi-fingered hand – they keyboard is like a fifth limb these days. Without it civilization would surely fail. Ideas like ice-floes in a freezing sea: random now, but soon to become one.

    Like

  4. Jacqui Murray says:
    10/26/2015 at 8:03 am

    I think you can rest on the laurels of a gorgeous planter. We’ll understand.

    Like

  5. dorannrule says:
    10/26/2015 at 7:03 am

    I predict you will have a long and happy life. Why? Because you have too many wonderful things to do! I also trust you will come up with the #1 creative thing to share – the one that is now rattling around in your brain. 🙂

    Like

  6. booguloo says:
    10/25/2015 at 7:01 pm

    I haven’t been able to get past your 30 limited conversations on your work. Just wanted to say thx for all the visits. If you have been seeing the dates of my work it’s older poems written. I’m working but going backwards on my work. it’ll all come out with time. Glad your keyboard is back….

    Like

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