Friday, October 29, 2010

The Work and the Muse

At 5 am, I jumped out of bed and into the chilly air. I know myself well enough to realize that had I pushed the snooze button on my alarm, or waited for myself to "wake up" in my cozy, warm bed, I would never have gotten up. So, I flash freezed myself. I highly recommend this method of waking up, especially if it takes a while to get dressed. The cold air speedens the process.

I stumbled down the stairs, and fumbled in the semi-darkness to start a pot of coffee. I was happy to note that I didn't have that fog that's been clouding my mind on and off the last 2 weeks. I now call that fog "over sleeping". Armed with a fresh mug of violently hot coffee, I sat down in this very chair in front of this desk, and prepared to write.

My mind, though fog-less, was blank. I re-read the last few paragraphs I'd written. Still blank. I dug down deep and grabbed hold of the faintest memory, just barely there, and wrote the little bit I could about it. A sentence. Then a paragraph. Then blank again. The another paragraph. Another memory comes to mind. A handful of words turned into 3 pages, and ended up being about 1,000 words.

5 am and hard work... who needs the muse, anyway? She's very unreliable.

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