Rumours of a my demise are greatly exaggerated, I am back! I’m not full steam ahead or anything so spectacular – more rowing at minimal speed behind the QE2-like boat that is HMS Limebird.
I’ve hardly written a ruddy thing since I became sick a few months back. Which is, creatively speaking, something of a nightmare.
When you are away from your quill and parchment for so long, your inner doubts settle in. Am I any good? Do I care if I am? Oh, very philosophical questions indeed and certainly metaphysical in the most part.
It’s been actually quite hard to get back in the saddle, I’ve found. I seem to have lost all concept of grammar and voice too – I have no idea where I left them.
From a grammatical point of view, it’s been something of a hairy massacre. Infinitive’s split all over the shop, punctuation banished and abandoned and sentence structure having been reduced to little more than an incoherent pulp. Not pleasant for all involved.
Now, I am an Avant Garde sort of a writer – I splish-splash my wotsits and literary carbuncles wherever I jolly well please usually. The surrealist and modernist movements would be on their feet sounding a very raucous standing ovation at my usual work and attitude towards it.
However, due to the length of time it has taken me between downing my tools (the keyboard and notebooks) and picking them up again, I have lost some of that joie de vivre and confidence.
I’m bothering to write about it here for you, because I suspect I am not alone. Taking time out – usually forcibly due to sickness, personal circumstances or moving house etc must have happened to many a writer. I think it’s terribly important that we acknowledge that sledgehammer-like interruptions to our writing lives do come along and take so long to come back from. It is simply part of the journey for many a writer I suspect and one worth relating to you dear readers out there who find themselves rowing with me, whilst everyone else seems to have bought power-boats (or at the very least, subscribed to coal-fired steam ships).
Fear not, I suspect it is something that is there to help enliven our writing ability, ultimately, by providing something of a personally character building exercise.
I hope that if any of you are ill or taking time off writing, that you recover soon!
LimebirdCat x
Limebird Writers 