Writer's Block

I love to write. This is why my blog entries sometimes turn into books. In fact, I was reading a friend's blog today, and she describes the way I think perfectly: "I see things in words in my head. Descriptions, words, phrases, and the rest." It's true. When I see an object that is brown, I think to myself that it is b-r-o-w-n. When people talk to me I see the words in my head, scrolling across in Times New Roman, white letters on black background. Seriously. Evidently that's strange, but it's the way my head works. So writing is absolutely natural to me...even more so than talking.

But I'm not very good at writing stories, mostly because I never really have any stories to tell. My own life, while I love it, is really rather boring and not very dramatic. And since a writer must write what she knows, I'm hardly qualified to write anything that isn't boring.

Nonetheless, I do try my hand at writing occasionally. Right now I'm working on a story tentatively called "The Piano Lesson" (writing what I know, as you can see). The beginning just flowed out of my mind and onto the page so naturally, but now I'm at a standstill. I can think of a good beginning (already have) and a good ending, but no middle to connect the two. Bummer.

But I'm very interested in the fact that my main character is a young boy. It just seemed right, in the part that just started flowing, but it is also strange because I've never been a young boy. I read one time, in some weird psychology book, that everyone has an alter-ego of sorts that is the opposite sex from them. I suppose that's where Philip Pullman gets the daemons in the His Dark Materials trilogy (every person has an alter ego, usually in the form of an animal, of the opposite sex that has a separate body but can't go very far from him), although I could be wrong about that. And it's true that a lot of the lame stories that start in my head and never get written have boy characters, but I'm not sure I'd say I have a male alter ego. I think I just like stories about boys because I know all about what it's like to be a girl. Boring. But now that I'm in the middle of this story, I am wondering if I am at all qualified to write from my boy character's point of view.

Oh well, it's not getting published. It might appear on here if I ever finish it though...

But I'm going to go hang out with Robin tonight and let time bring some ideas (hopefully)...