Writing Again After Life Upheaval
By Karen Elizabeth Rigley
Storms of life can leave you battered and shipwrecked from your
writing. Whatever the crisis, the resulting chaos can dam up
your ability to create. It’s difficult, sometimes nearly
impossible, to be creative and inspired when you’re in turmoil
- emotionally or physically. You feel drained. As if the
ability to write’s been sucked out, leaving you empty. Words
that once bubbled forth, vanish.
You may think you’re empty, but you’re not. Once a writer,
always a writer. A writer’s spirit flows with an undulating
ocean of words and your ocean hasn’t evaporated. The power of
words; the passion to create, still lurk in hidden depths. So
realize it’s temporary when that blank screen and empty page
haunt you.
Simple steps and a bit of patience will help reclaim your muse
and get your creativity flowing once more. Wade into the
shallows instead of trying to dive.
(1) Look beyond the seawall.
Revisit your last project. Read your last chapter, paragraph or
sentence. Review your notes. Re-emerge yourself gradually into
whatever you were writing. Don’t expect to plunge in full
force.
(2) Collect seashells.
Edit or critique someone else’s manuscript. It’s amazing how
helping someone else with their work can help you swim back
into your own writing.
(3) Relax on the beach.
Read. Every writer was a reader first. Wasn’t reading what
ignited your desire to write? Let the tide wash over you to
soothe and renew your spirit.
(4) Test the waters.
Think of a new project or the way you want to end your current
one. Play with an outline, a character sketch or a scene. Maybe
do some research. Move through the warm shallows before diving
into the cold sea.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. Like the ebb and flow of ocean
tides, rhythms vary. Everyone heals at their own rate. Soon
your writing will begin to flow and you’ll find yourself afloat
in an ocean of words.
LIMBO
SAIL
I drift through the colorless ocean of writer’s limbo,
aimlessly floating upon a sea of nothingness.
Has reality encroached too far
shipwrecking my creativity?
Has continuously pondering the fate of manuscripts
drowned my productivity?
Have the recent crisis and chaos of life
battered and marooned my muse?
Waves of limbo lure me away from my writing.
I unresistingly follow like a sailor searching the seas,
mesmerized by the siren call of mermaids.
I ignore cries of unfinished tales.
Ignore impatient ideas swimming through my mind.
Ignore imaginary voices floating upon the waves.
A flame flickers above the horizon,
igniting with the intensity of a lighthouse beacon,
beckoning me back to the harbor of my computer.
Karen Elizabeth Rigley
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Author bio:
A multi-award winning author/poet/designer, Karen Elizabeth
Rigley is recognized for her ability to touch readers with her
myriad of stories, articles, scripts and poetry. She’s a member
of the International Women’s Writing Guild and Science Fiction
& Fantasy Writers of America, plus was former
editor/director of Writers Rainbow.
Her work’s appeared in: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Love
Stories, Underwired Magazine (Sept 08), Today’s Woman, On the
SingleSide, Magic, The Magic Within, Grit,, ComputerEdge, Andre
Norton’s TALES OF THE WITCHWORLD (Volume Two), CATFANTASTIC
Edited by Andre Norton & Martin H. Greenberg, CATFANTASTIC
II and CATFANTASTIC III, Romance Writers Report, RhymeTime,
SouthWest Writers Workshop, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Workshop, Inkling, Keystrokes, MysteryTime, Housewife Writers
Forum, Strange Wonderland, Science Fiction Review,
etc.
If you have found her article helpful, contact her at:
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