A lot of people in my life love Winter and rejoice at the disappearance of sunlight (perhaps I'm friends with too many vampires?). I was determined to embrace the darknesss this year and convinced myself the rainy nights would motivate me to double my creative output... Then October and the pitch black mornings arrived, along with an unpleasant sickness bug, and me and Winter were once again not such great friends. My motivation had been zapped and I was missing being able to SEE my surroundings on my commute to and from work.
Then this morning Winter showed me her beautiful side. On an early walk to the station I was blinded by a blood red sun which slowly disappeared behind the gothic spires of a distant church. As the sky dissolved into shades of pink and orange I thought okay, maybe this is the season to be jolly after all...
I've been thinking about all of the people who are taking part in NaNoWriMo this month (I applaud your discipline and wish you well). The thought of rushing a novel doesn't appeal to me, but the challenge of upping my creative output does...So for the rest of November I'm setting myself a challenge of producing something creative, (no matter how small), every day to kickstart my motivation.
Yesterday I'd hoped to write a 4,000 word story but probably produced about 100 words I was actually happy with. I was having trouble switching off that pesky logical 'left hand' side of my brain and then I remembered a tip in my Mslexia writing diary (taken from the book 'Drawing on the Right Hand Side of the Brain') which suggested you start drawing, listening to music, do some gardening or meditate, in order to force a cognitive shift and send the left hand side into shutdown.
So I kept listening to music and started doodling (the result of which is at the top of this post). It seemed to work - maybe a bit too well as I found myself wide awake at 3am this morning with new ideas for stories whirring around my head...
Here's to the dark and rainy nights where we get to lock ourselves indoors without the guilt of feeling like we should be enjoying the sunshine outside... Happy writing!
