New views
Looking for a retreat is the next step in my writing plans. But as I searched through the plethora of retreats and weekend, weeklong workshops, I found one that made me stop and reconsider it all.
"Are you in the second half of your life?"
Maybe I'm sensitive about my age, you're thinking, but realistically, I don't really think of my age as a person, as much as I think about my age as writer. But back to the quote. Now more than ever am I re-thinking this whole writing thing. It further reinforced any insecurites I had about my writing. Great, now something different to focus on, which is good. I am stuck in an endless cycle on one topic. Just different stories and settings with the same theme. How many ways can this story play out? How do you walk away from the constant din? The repetition. When does it get tiresome and why can't I just write about something else.
I have been trying to trick my brain into it. Like using music, reading Music X Writing, reminded me of this, because the right song brings me to a setting and feeling, which gives me something else to think about.
New views and places help. Getting up and getting out where you usually write helps. Right now I'm sitting in my apartment in Connecticut. When I got here the construction area next to my building was a giant hole.
Walks around the neighborhood, a hike also clear my head. My only problem with this is that I come up with brilliant storylines or dialogue as I'm walking and I promise myself I will remember it by the time I get home, but then 2 miles later, the thought is gone even though I repeated it to myself a zillion times. The one thing I have to stay away is reading. Reading brings me back to my endless cycle of stories and themes I am stuck in.
Yes, yes, I could read something else, my personal library, Kindle, audiobook and tangible books is filled with the same subject filed as research material makes my heart ache. When I read them, the 5 different books I'm reading and listening to, I take endless notes and have filled countless notebooks and have started bits of dialogue and ideas. I come back to the same theme constantly because the world isn't changing. That's why you have to talk about it right? Write?
So second half of your life then, when exactly is that? How is time measured? In the stories you tell? In the plays you've written? The plays you've had produced?
I've lost my train of thought now and where I was going with this.
