So last week I wrote about a great day of writing. But like a seesaw, when you go up, eventually you come down.
Yesterday was the down day. It was pretty horrible. I sat there with my hands on the keys, eye on the screen and my mind a blank. It was like there was wall around my brain keeping all the words locked up somewhere. And of course, the harder I tried, just typing any words hoping to get something going, the worse it got.
I might have had a legitimate excuse. We are getting the exterior of our house painted. It's ranch style and has lots and lots of big windows that are wonderful about letting in light, but not so great when there is a painter working on them and you (or in this case me) is inside. There has been lots of noise of scrapping and sanding. What makes it even more of a chore is that the wood around the windows and the doors (there are a lot of them, too) were all varnished wood. All that wood looked nice, but has been horrible to keep up. And now it all really looks bad. But this time we aren't having them re varnished, but following the advice that we've gotten every time we've had the woodwork done, and painting them.
Right now my view of the painters, and there view of me, is blurred. The windows near my computer have been covered in something that makes them look frosted that I gather is to protect them from paint spatter.
The backyard is all pulled apart since they had to move everything away from the walls and I feel like a prisoner stuck inside.
I expected today to be the same in the word department and was prepared to not fight it and give up trying. But in what I guess is my perverse nature, when I sat down at the computer just as the painters had arrived this morning. Despite the banging and face outside the window, I went back to what I had written yesterday (which was as stiff and awful and I'd thought) and all of a sudden the scene I was writing came to life and all these details appeared and dialogue with conflict, and maybe some suspense.
I kept wondering where it all came from.
After the painting is done, we're going to change our front yard from lawn that sucks up water to a combination of drought resistant succulents and pretty gravel, along with a tall hedge to add some privacy.
The jury is still out about what to do about the backyard. And that's before we tackle the inside. We've been here 30 years and it's been lots of stuff coming in and not so much going out.
And since I have a line up of six books to create, I'll be writing through it all.
3 comments:
Oh, how l sympathize. Since my husband died, I have had several BIG projects done. He had been putting them off because he always did everything himself when healthy. He absolutely hated paying someone else. I finally convinced him to hire a gardener, the yard is small, but he just couldn't do it any longer. I have gone on with new furnace, new windows all around, filling in swimming pool which was a wreck. There was a house flood which required replacing most of the floors and asbestos removal. I won't leave workers here, so I was holed up with my cats in one room.
I now need to have the inside painted--my children and grandchildren are escaping to other states. This will mean more workers shuffling about. ARRRRRRGH
You are doing a great job--hurry' so I have new reading material while the painters putter !!
Wow, Linda Osborn, you have had to deal with a lot. It's great that your husband was able to do so much, but it sounds like you figured out how handle things. I sympathize about being locked in a room with pets. There was just the one day when I was stuck. Now, the painters can pound on the window in the room I work in and I'm still good.
I used to have to deal with all the repairs etc and did a lot myself, but my son is a real help. He's suddenly discovered that he knows how to fix things. My husband has always been clueless. He had to find me today when the painters wanted us to close some of the windows.
I can identify with having a difficult time writing with noisy distractions around. And I'm impressed you were able to eventually cast it aside for at least a while and write!
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